Meet Ioana Marcu

Ioana Marcu is a successful coach-preneur with a 6 figures revenue business, who started her own journey after more than 20 years of working in the corporate world. At one point, when she was Executive Director, she realized that she could impact more leaders positively on their journey. She knows how it feels to have faith in yourself, even when no one around you does, not to mention how it is to find your way and your voice and challenge the company’s politics.

Ioana Marcu knows how it feels to have faith in yourself, even when no one around you does, not to mention how it is to be able to find your own way and your own voice in the company’s politics.

After a series of senior management jobs working with people from around the world, enjoying her life with her lovely husband and 2 children, now 16 and 20 years old, Ioana Marcu found herself wondering what is it that she really wants to do and then decided that she had to follow her dream.

So, Ioana Marcu started to dream big—one day she left everything behind, with people around wondering if she lost her mind and launched her own coaching business (planning for success but not knowing if she could ever earn her keep).

After trying a few businesses and failing successfully, she decided to dedicate her energy and focus on senior leadership coaching, and finally launched her business. Ioana Marcu made $1000 the first month — truly unbelievable, and then, hit six figures in one year. In the first 12 months, she received incredible feedback and great referrals from executives working in different areas and with various business challenges.

Ioana Marcu worked with hundreds of people from all around the world and received several awards in her leadership journey like “Best People Developer” in Europe from one of her employers who is part of the top Fortune Companies. She knows how difficult it is to make your own way up there and realized that helping people around you grow, helps you grow as well. It is not easy, it is not luck and definitely isn’t a secret.

She made critical shifts in her mindset related to the employer, her bosses, money, and she started to do things differently and started investing in herself as well. She left her fears, one of them stemming from her feelings of being a woman executive, behind and after working on herself with a great coach she realized she had amazing potential. She felt for too long that she is “too much”, much more than others could handle, then she realized that this isn’t a problem, but rather a great advantage, and her perception on it is the real game changer.

Today, Ioana Marcu is working with executive leaders on how to do the same thing she did. She helps them break free of the limitations of their false backstories and flawed mindsets that hold their goals hostage and keep them from moving forward, and helps them connect more deeply to their true self.

The truth is I always knew I can do more, something big, something noteworthy but I always thought that I might be aiming too high.

I started to study engineering as my entire family, except for my mom, who is a teacher, is full of engineers. After being accepted in the first 10 students, and started the studies, I realized that it wasn’t what I wanted to do. Although I did not know what my path was, I followed my action pattern and moved to economic studies, which totally changed my perspective, as I felt that this was pleasant and easy work (compared to engineering) and it felt like me again.

Then it turned out that it was not so pleasant, as there was no practical work, and so I started my first job at 21. Initially unpaid internship, then part time as I still wanted to be able to pass my exams. And I felt I was on the right path but did not know yet which way that path goes.

My first 10 years after graduation went by like a flash, working hard on professional and personal life, being promoted on three management level and having my 2 lovely kids. I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to do it all, but I did it nonetheless. I had trust in myself, so I carried on.

I worked in several areas of commercial functions and started to have more heated conflicts with my superiors. The business vertical was pretty small and I didn’t want to move to competition – it was neither ethical nor what I dreamed of.

So, after 1 year of struggle I managed to move in a completely new role, new vertical. I am not sure if they were crazy to offer me the position, or if I was the crazy one to accept it. Anyhow I started working feeling happy and energized. Then in circa 3 months I realized that I cannot do the job. Then I realized that no one could – there were some people before me who tried and failed at the same tasks – and I started to enjoy it, realizing how big an opportunity it is to have an undoable job . With this mindset I managed to finish the project with good results, and, in addition, got to work with great people around me.

After a couple of years of extended work-related travels, I was quite exhausted. My boss asked me to have an onboarding discussion with a new VP to explain what it feels like working here. I asked him if he saw science-fiction movies. The type where a green light swoops from the sky and the aliens kidnap you, only to then find yourself home, not realizing where you were or what happened, just being glad to be home with your husband and kids!

TODAY I AM STILL A YOUNG WOMAN ENJOYING LIFE EVEN IF IT’S TOUGH, BEING ABLE TO LAUGH ABOUT THE SITUATION AND ABOUT MYSELF, AND YET… A LOT HAS CHANGED.