Breaking Into Business: How Coralie McLean Became a Business Leader in Victoria, British Columbia

Despite working in a male-driven industry that pitted her against men twice her age and experience, Coralie McLean was an absolute natural at selling some of the most luxurious vehicles on the market at BMW Victoria.

The twist? She was only 19.

Strong business acumen and an ability to analyze financials with relative ease propelled her to a promotion to Business Manager after only one year on the job — all while finishing a degree at the University of Victoria.

“At the age of 20, I learned how to close a car deal on my own,” says Coralie, founder of LivelyCo, a leading social media management and content marketing agency in Victoria.

“I learned how to negotiate, which became extremely valuable when I started my own business.”

Fast forward to today, and Coralie is a successful business owner and renowned public speaker known for her ability to help businesses elevate their brand and products online.

Entrepreneur State of Mind

Launching her own business at 29 years old, fearlessness is a prevalent theme in Coralie’s dynamic career trajectory.

“I learned the ropes by being thrown in the lion’s den,” she explains.

Though many consider it a ruthless field, working in sales gave her the backbone to stand her ground in a male-dominated industry. As a young woman, she was fiercely determined to succeed, even amidst criticism from her peers, after her quick ascension from receptionist.

“It was really cutthroat, but I knew I could make it work,” she says. “It was a huge responsibility when I was promoted to Business Manager.”

“As a business manager you want to be highly organized and good at sales. I think my attitude was completely different than the men. It’s not to say they weren’t capable of doing the role, but I was able to jump up and prove myself and be calm and collected.”

After completing her Bachelor of Commerce, Management at the University of Victoria, Coralie decided to leave the world of sales and move to the lower mainland. Having identified marketing as her passion during her post-secondary program, she took a leap and accepted a position at Vancouver’s Magnum Projects Ltd, a real estate sales and marketing agency.

“They took a chance on me because I didn’t have any marketing work experience at the time,” she explains. “But, I knew sales really well so I was able to adapt and work with the team.”

Coralie took the opportunity and ran with it. Her commitment to learning a new craft in a new, challenging industry even included night classes on how to speak Mandarin.

But, she decided to pivot once again in pursuit of another passion, and the goal that had enticed her to go to university in the first place: her childhood dream to study geology and be a weather girl on television.

Following Your Intuition

That childhood dream led her to journalism.

After completing a journalism degree at the University of King’s College in Halifax, she quickly found an exciting opportunity at CTV Vancouver Island as the digital news producer.

At CTV, she was thrown into all of the station’s social media — at the time the broadcaster had next to no followers on Twitter and was struggling to build a WordPress website. Even though she had no prior experience with social media or website development she took advantage of the opportunity to learn a new skill set and helped CTV upgrade their digital presence.

And her role wasn’t just behind-the-scenes.

“At one point, they were starting a new segment for the 5 o’clock show and said, ‘Coralie, you should do a segment on tech since you’re our tech expert here.’ I became the tech reporter,” she says. “I had a weekly segment called ‘Tech It Out’ and that’s how I got to know a lot of big players in tech here in Victoria.”

That perseverance and willingness to take on new challenges and opportunities helped define her time at CTV Vancouver Island.

“Once a week, when I was live every Monday, I got really nervous,” she says in her humble manner. “There was no room for error!”

This segment was her first foray in the Victoria tech scene in 2014, which was growing rapidly at the time. It was one of her first realizations that her ability to write, and develop an emotional connection with people on social media was immensely valuable to the tech companies in town.

“The landscape of television news was changing and a lot of things were gravitating to online so I thought this is the time to take a leap,” says Coralie.

“Because of my connections in tech, business owners in town were asking me to run their social media. They had these really complex stories where they had this great tech gadget that was fixing this great problem but they didn’t know how to articulate it because they’re engineers, they’re tech experts.”

No longer able to resist or ignore the demand for her social media and content writing services, Coralie delved into the world of branding and marketing.

Taking a Calculated Risk

Leaving one of Canada’s premiere corporate companies and starting a business from scratch is not a choice that every 29-year-old would make. However, looking back at that defining moment in her career, Coralie encourages young women to be confident and courageous if they are hesitating to start their own business.

“It’s simpler than you think — it’s just a matter of getting going because you can plan it all out and take months to build a strategy but then you could be losing out on opportunity,” she explains.

“First, drill down to what you’ll offer, whether that’s a service or a product, and ask yourself: is there a demand for this?”

Now, three years after LivelyCo’s creation, Coralie explains that promoting businesses should be energy-filled and fun. Behind every business is a great story, and LivelyCo’s goal is to to bring these captivating stories to life.

One of the greatest challenges for creative agencies is deciding how to price a service, such as writing business copy, something that is intrinsically creative and artistic.

“One of the hardest things I found when starting LivelyCo was pricing because I could sell an $80,000 BMW no problem because I believed in its value. I believed in its quality and craftsmanship,” Coralie says.

“But when selling a service I created… it was a huge confidence lack. I knew there was a need for it, but it was just taking that next step on learning how to price myself appropriately.”

“You have to be your biggest cheerleader and that can be the hardest thing. With this, it’s important to charge a higher price than you think you are worth too — like at least 20% higher,” she says.

“I try to encourage other women to know that they can do anything they set their minds too — it’s usually our own self that gets in the way. I’ve let my beliefs of what others thought of me get in the way in the past, but at the end of the day I just needed to block that out and pursue my own goals.”

Being a Business Leader

Today, LivelyCo is an industry leader because of its reputation for transparent and communicative relationships with their business clients. This way of doing business is rooted in Coralie’s belief in building meaningful relationships based on alignment.

“We go through quite a rigorous on-boarding exercise. For a lot of clients, it’s an instant connection because they trust us,” she explains. “This is the foundation and this is really what we’re going to do for you.”

But being a business leader isn’t just about her relationships with clients — it’s also about building a cohesive, creative team.

One of the most important lessons Coralie has learned as a business leader managing an intimate team is that you need to be okay with the uncomfortable. It’s important for her to communicate with her team, and that includes having difficult conversations.

But, if not for these challenges and difficult conversations Coralie would not have found her true passion.

“Some people look at my career path and think, ‘Wow, she couldn’t hold a job’ or ‘Whoa couldn’t make that last.’ You have to do what you love,” she passionately explains.

“I’ve reached the point where I don’t think I need to justify my decision to pivot and my really diverse path.”

YYJ Tech Ladies is interested in sharing the stories and experiences of women who lead in the city’s tech community. Our goal is to highlight their work, create connections, and inspire newcomers to the industry and veterans alike.