From Nonprofit Executive to Online Advisor: Vasheti’s Reinvention Story

In this powerful episode of Career Coaching Secrets, host Pedro sits down with nonprofit revenue and operations advisor Vasheti Quiros to explore resilience, reinvention, and building a purpose-driven online business.

Vasheti shares the life-altering moment that changed everything — a sudden brain tumor diagnosis that forced her to step away from her executive director role and completely rebuild her life. After undergoing brain surgery and relearning how to walk, talk, and regain cognitive function, she returned to the nonprofit world with a new mission: helping mission-driven women leaders build predictable funding systems and operational stability without burnout.


Connect with

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vasheti-quiros/
Website: https://wellbalancedceo.com/

Transcript

Vasheti Quiros 0:00

Strong network of nonprofit women in my community. What I am trying to do, and what I have successfully done, is build an online business that I can expand my network beyond what I have locally so that I can serve people online and so I'm not restricted to just my local community. So I now am, you know, an online, my business is online and I am able to serve people virtually. So that was a goal of mine too, is that I become somebody who has a virtual neck versus just a local community.

Davis Nguyen 0:46

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets, the podcast where we talk with successful career coaches on how they built their success and the hard lessons they learned along the way. My name is David Swin, and I'm the founder of Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, and even $100,000 a week. Before Purple Circle, I've grown several seven and eight-figure career coaching businesses myself, and have been a consultant at two career coaching businesses that are doing over $100 million each. Whether you're an established coach or building your projects for the first time, go discover the secrets to elevating your coaching business.

Pedro 1:17

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm Pedro, and today's guest is Vashity Quiros, a nonprofit revenue and operations advisor who helps mission-driven women leaders build predictable funding and operational stability without burning out. She partners with executive directors and boards to replace reactive fundraising with clear strategy, consistent execution, and leadership systems that support long-term growth. With more than twenty years of nonprofit executive experience, she's led multi-million dollars growth, diversified revenue streams, and strengthened internal infrastructure. Organizations can scale sustainably. Her work blends fundraising strategy with strong operations and calm, confident leadership. Welcome to the show, Vashity.

Vasheti Quiros 2:19

Thank you so much, Pedro. Thank you for having me.

Pedro 2:22

Yeah, I'm excited that you're here. Okay. And before we get into what you do now, I'm curious how this all actually started, right? So, what was going on in your life when coaching became more than just an idea?

Vasheti Quiros 2:37

Well, um, what was going on in my life was a um a major, major health crisis. And I was the executive director of a music therapy nonprofit um at the time. And it was it was the end of the year in 2018, and I was reach trying to reach the end of the year, you know, revenue targets. And so I was, you know, really heavily focused on end of the year, you know, fundraising goals and and not really focused on much else. I was focused on making sure that my staff at the time, I had a staff of eight. And so I was, you know, obviously as an executive director, the main priority at the time was making sure that all of my staff um maintained full-time employment. And, you know, obviously uh had benefits. That was a huge priority for me at the time. So um, you know, making sure that my music therapists had had benefits was a huge, you know, goal for me. So getting the funding and the fund, you know, having the funding to ensure that they had benefits was a huge goal for me. So this was something that was on my mind at the time. And um I was really focused on my staff and my my children, my daughter, my husband. And I'm really not really focused on myself. And um ultimately I was having some minor symptoms, you know, physical symptoms, but nothing that was very evident or nothing major, I would say. So I figured I would go to the eye doctor and get an eye exam and take the path of least resistance and figure that that would, you know, help identify because I had some some low lower vision. And so I went in and one of the symptoms that I had that was, I think, a little, a little off was that I was having some numbness and tingling in my left hand. And so that was something that was, you know, a little concerning at the time. And so when I went in to get my eye exam, they said that I had to, that I had some fluid on my optical nerve and that I needed to get a more advanced screening to see what was happening. So I at that point went and they had instructed me to go to a couple different places, and one of them was our local hospital. And because I had the numbness and tingling in my fingers, I was like, I'm gonna go to the hospital to get this screening done. And when I went there, they did the more advanced screening, and then they gave me an MRI, and they said, you know, well, we need to have your husband come. And, you know, at that point, I'm like, great, you know, what's going on? And you know, at that point, I knew that something serious was was probably happening. And um, and then when my husband got there, they informed me that I had a brain tumor. And so this was the um point in time that I was pretty much stopped dead in my tracks uh and really had to, I was it was September 7th that I was informed that I had a brain tumor, and then uh they basically informed me that I had two weeks to get all of my affairs in order and that I had to go into brain surgery. So I wasn't given um any options for radiation or for other forms of treatment because of the size and the location of the brain tumor, um, was only given the option of uh surgery and it was had needed to happen very soon. And so um this instilled enormous shock here. I'm sure you can imagine all of the all of the emotions and sensations that were running through me at the time, and that ultimately made me reassess where I was in my life. Obviously, I didn't think at the time. I didn't know if I was gonna even wake up from the surgery, you know. I didn't have any idea um really what I was even going into or what I was gonna if I was even gonna come out of it and how I was gonna come out of it. And so um it was a very scary, the most scary thing I've ever had to encounter, or at least so I thought. Um but I did wake up um and I did come out of it okay, you know. I did come out of it, uh, I will say very different because I had to relearn literally everything. I couldn't, um, I couldn't walk, I couldn't talk, I couldn't, you know, my cognitive skills were, I had to relearn literally everything. So I when I woke up, I had three months of very intensive occupational physical speech therapy that I was involved in to get me back to where I could um even do regular basic activities again without having having somebody care, you know, a caretaker with me. So, and that's something that when I was told I had to go into surgery, I didn't even think about the recovery, I didn't even ask about the recovery, and that wasn't even uh something that I even thought of at the time. So, and the recovery was very extensive, and so part of my thought process of becoming a coach happened during my recovery, and I didn't actually act on it though until um a couple years after uh after I I went back to work as an executive director for that same nonprofit and um used that experience to try to help me to try to aid my re aid in my recovery because I was working with budgets and you know really feeling that it would help help me in my recovery with the work that I was doing. And uh and it was really beneficial for my recovery for for quite a time. And then I was moved into something a little less stressful, into a development director role, and then I really figured that I needed to take that time to redevelop what I needed and how I wanted to really come into the nonprofit sector from a different perspective. So that's really where my business was born because I really saw how people in the nonprofit sector were being how I'm gonna say women in the nonprofit sector were being overburdened with scarcity mindset. They were not being given the resources that they needed to complete their jobs with success. So they weren't being set up for success, they were really being set up for failure. Um, I know in my own role, even in the situation that I was in, there were several times that I was not set up for success with resources, I was really set up for failure. And so this was something that I identified not only in my own role, but in other people's positions that were peers of mine or colleagues of mine in the nonprofit sector. So we also went through COVID. So as a mandated organization, we were mandated to operate through COVID. And so this became a time where I focused on getting um a lot of trauma-informed care training for not only for myself, but for my organization. And that really showed me where the gaps were in my organization and where the gaps were in the nonprofit sector, about where we were really missing the mark in being trauma-informed, not only for the staff within the nonprofit sector organizations, and how that was really impacting some of the nonprofit clients. And so I really started thinking very hard about how I could come at this from a different perspective and really help many more nonprofits from a consultancy perspective and make an impact with these nonprofits in a way where I was not restricted and held back.

Pedro 12:52

Wow. Let me that sink in a little. Okay. That was a powerful story. Wow. I mean, when you said you can't imagine, no, I cannot imagine it. Just the thought of getting that two weeks notice, it's like I supposed to be terrifying. I mean, in a way we talk about, oh, you should live the life that's what's foolish, like you're not gonna wake up tomorrow. But when you set up a time like that, oh my god. Well, first of all, thanks for sharing that, okay? I can tell that that is so powerful. You're still making me shiver a bit here. This is wild. So yeah, thank you for that, first of all. And second, let me understand here at what point, you know, because you you you moved from a personal hardship, right? Health, major crisis, to then felt the calling, right? So to start coaching. And at what point did it stop feeling like a side thing or a calling and start feeling like an actual business you were responsible for?

Vasheti Quiros 13:52

I was really thinking about this, you know, this dream that I had about doing it, um, about really building this business. There is a really defining moment that I did make that decision to shift from trying to manage doing both things and then making that really definitive choice of no, I'm not going to do these both things, and I am going to shift. Uh, and it was scary. It was a scary choice to abandon that career. I want to say it was February of 2024 that I left uh my job that my, you know, that was paying me a paycheck. And um, you know, for my and for my business from employment to to my full-time self-employment, I guess.

Pedro 14:55

Interesting. Let me ask you this. Once you were out there helping people, right, were you able to to find your own tribe really quick or not really, you know?

Vasheti Quiros 15:04

Had and I have had a strong network of nonprofit women in my community. What I am trying to do, and what I have successfully done, is build an online business so that I can expand my network beyond what I have locally, so that I can serve people online, and so I'm not restricted to just my local community. So I now am, you know, an online, my business is online and I am able to serve people virtually. So so that was a goal of mine too, is that I become somebody who has a virtual neck versus just a local community. And that has been challenging is trying to continue to um maintain and solicit virtual um people virtually throughout the world. That is my entry point. That's how people get to know me. I do at least one webinar masterclass a month, and then that is really how I get people's people to connect with me.

Pedro 16:27

Okay. Now let's zoom out for a second, and you kind of browse through it. If someone ends up working with you today, how do they usually find a way to to you in the first place? You know?

Vasheti Quiros 16:39

Okay, so there's lots of different ways. I have a uh for well, obviously I have a website. So I've got my main website and I am accessible at well balanced CEO. So well balanced CEO is my website. I am accessible at well balance CEO via Instagram, Facebook. So that's really how I am found. And then, of course, like I said, doing these master classes, I market and publish them on Eventbrite. So I try to make them accessible through Eventbrite, which is also where people are looking, looking to be trained. So um that's uh where I usually market all of my training opportunities. And then I also have a 90-day reset. So I have a 90-day fundraising reset, and I'm in the process of building a certification program, and it's gonna be an AI fundraising mastery certification. So I'm super excited about getting ready to release this, especially at this time, uh, for nonprofits to really understand what's happening in the changing world and really get certified in this way. So we will have a first of all have a call, you know, have a one-on-one call. And then and then that will translate into defining what their specific needs are. So ultimately I want to, you know, find out what what their specific needs are. I I do have one-on-one support too. So I have a 12-month contract that is a I offer fractional support where I can literally come into your program and and be a part-time worker. So, but the first thing I want to do is figure out what their exact need is. And so what we do is we sit down for a consultation call and we define what their specific need is, and we really develop like a little mini roadmap to figure out what their gaps are and then how I can best I can best meet their need. And so then from there, we will I will figure out if they need to go in the 90-day reset, if they need to go with one-on-one support with me, what my recommendation would be. I also have a five-hour VIP day that I do. So I have like a couple different services that I can recommend for people based on that initial conversation that I have with them.

Pedro 19:32

Okay. I mean, your work seems pretty involved, right? So we're talking about webinars, we're talking VIP day, one-on-ones, consultation calls. So, how do you think about managing your time and energy so the business doesn't start owning you?

Vasheti Quiros 19:47

Is a great question. And I specifically block my times. So I'm really intentional about time blocking. So, for instance, um, I have one client right now who I have designated for Fridays, and I'm with them on their Friday meetings with their board, because their board meets on Fridays. So I'm able to sit in with their board meeting every other Friday, and I'm able to contribute and give updates if needed, accommodate their timing needs. And so at the same time, that fits within my schedule because I have other clients that I serve throughout the rest of the week that fill up my time slots throughout the rest of the week, and they fit within that Friday time slot.

Pedro 20:38

Okay. Now, looking forward a bit, what's the direction you're aiming this business towards? I mean, are you thinking more about growth, leverage, building a team, or refining what already works? You know, what feels most exciting right now? You're excited about, I want to hear about future now.

Vasheti Quiros 20:54

Excited about growth. Um, I one think uh in looking what the nonprofit sector needs, the nonprofit sector is um place a significant need in itself right now. And so what I am doing is really trying to support the nonprofit sector in staying sustainable. And so not only am I trying to help nonprofits stay sustainable, but I'm also trying to help the nonprofit sector stay sustainable by this certification program. I want to help more nonprofit people get energized and become nonprofit fundraisers. I want to train more people to do this work. We need more people in this line of business in the nonprofit sector. And so, this is what I'm really excited to do is to get more people energized to do this work and to serve the Nonprofit sector in this way.

Pedro 22:02

I love it. Okay. And you know, even when things are going well, there's always something under construction. Like, what's the main thing you're actively working on or trying to improve in the business right now?

Vasheti Quiros 22:12

My funnels. My funnels right now are um probably the things that are a challenge for me. So they're the things right now that I am working on and trying to uh improve and trying to make the best that they can be because I want whoever experiences them, I want them to be as streamlined and as easy as possible.

Pedro 22:46

I love that. You know, Vashity, you've been around long enough to see trends come and go, right? So people give business advice nonstop, especially online. And you know it because you're diving into more and more into the online space. So, what's something you hear repeated a lot that you think people misunderstand or overvalue?

Vasheti Quiros 23:08

It's hard. Sometimes coaching is a difficult thing, and sometimes it becomes really hard to coach people, and I want to say that after doing this for now almost two years, that it has really become an extension of my work, and it is something that I love because I love to help and serve people. It at first was something that I was intimidated to do, but as I continued to practice and continued to get my confidence around the subjects, it really was just an adaptation of what I was already doing. And it really just became a part of what I was already doing, and it just became something natural to me. So um it was never as hard as I thought. I think it was just the anticipation of what I was thinking. So I think it's just, you know, if you have that that desire to help people lead and grow, um, you know, coaching is is a really good place to be.

Pedro 24:28

And on the flip side, right? What's something boring or not as hype that you wish more people actually paid attention to?

Vasheti Quiros 24:36

It can be really easy to overspend if you don't appropriately budget knowledge. And I will say that I have heard quite a few horror stories of people who have started this business and have gotten into some trouble because they have not been as careful with their money in the beginning or they have haven't budgeted appropriately. So I think that is one thing that I would just really caution people about is to make sure that you create a budget and make sure to budget for your taxes every month because those eventually have to be paid.

Pedro 25:21

If someone resonated with what you shared and wants to follow your work, well-balanced CEO. There were a few moments from this conversation that really stood out to me. It's such a wake-up call to everyone listening and how you were so transparent about it, you know, and how you live through that and how you talk about that. You're not in denial, you're not panicking, it's just fity revamped 2.0, right? So I really like that. I love that story. I mean, I can't oh I I cannot even imagine the the the struggle you went through, and uh I commend you and how you dealt with it and where you are right now, okay?

Vasheti Quiros 26:04

Thank you.

Pedro 26:05

On top of that, I like how you talk about business, you move from cancer, major health to business like in a heartbeat. And not a lot of people can do that. I I I gotta say, when you mention this the funnel, when you mention the budgeting, that's all bringing back to us to the ground, right? Like, let's talk about business for a second, how important that is. So that's always a good sharp reminder for uh our audience, you know, for other coaches out there. So, Vashri, I really appreciate you taking the time being open with this. It was great having you on.

Vasheti Quiros 26:43

Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. This was really a good podcast uh episode, and I really appreciate you having me as a guest.

Davis Nguyen 26:53

That's it for this episode of Career Coaching Secrets. If you enjoyed this conversation, you can subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening to this episode to catch future episodes. This podcast was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, or even $100,000 weeks, all without burning out and making sure that you're making the impact and having the life that you want. To learn more about our community and how we can help you, visit join purplecircle.com.