#126 Chanda Coston: Third Quarter Entrepreneurship, Purpose, and Execution Without Excuses

Chanda Coston is a business coach and strategist who helps women, especially 40 plus “third quarter entrepreneurs,” turn long held ideas into real businesses through clarity, strategy, and consistent execution. She explains why the third quarter matters: after the career and family phase, many people feel urgency to pursue work that finally feels meaningful, and they bring the maturity to move fast.Chanda shares the personal turning point that reshaped her path, losing her brother to gun violence, which pushed her to question impact and legacy. That experience led her into nonprofit work teaching life skills and entrepreneurship, and eventually into coaching and strategy, where she found what she loves most: helping someone take an idea from their head and heart and bring it to life.Her approach starts with defining what success looks like, then planning backward with clear goals and milestones so progress is measurable. She calls out a common trap: people consume information but do not execute. Her solution is structure and accountability, because consistent check ins raise follow through.On time management, Chanda recommends a calendar audit, tracking how each hour is spent for five days to reveal where time actually goes. From there, she uses time blocking, prioritization, and distraction control to make progress non negotiable. She also shares a simple productivity habit: work in focused blocks with short breaks to reset your brain and sustain energy, and limit daily priorities to one to three actions that directly move the goal forward.Chanda connects Lean Six Sigma to small business growth by treating the business as a system: remove bottlenecks, streamline workflows, and reduce the founder as a single point of failure so the business can scale. She also brings a Navy style risk mindset, encouraging entrepreneurs to ask what could go wrong, plan contingencies, and adapt to shifts like AI so they do not become obsolete.A key theme is self trust. Chanda often “lends” clients her confidence until they can see their own value and act on it. She also draws a boundary: if someone repeatedly avoids the work, the issue may be deeper than business strategy.About Chanda Coston- https://Chanda-co.com- https://www.instagram.com/chanda__co/- https://a.co/d/04s5LbPy- https://join.chanda-co.com/3day-clarity, About Federico Ramallo ✨👨‍💻🌎🚀 Software Engineering Manager | 🛠 Founder of DensityLabs.io & PreVetted.ai | 🤝 Connecting 🇺🇸 U.S. teams with top nearshore 🌎 LATAM engineers- 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/framallo/- 🌐 https://densitylabs.io- ✅ https://prevetted.ai🎙 PreVetted Podcast 🎧📡- 🎯 https://prevetted.ai/podcast- 🐦 https://x.com/PrevettedPod- 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/prevetted-podcast00:00 Introduction to Chanda Coston and Her Mission01:43 The Importance of Entrepreneurship in Uncertain Times04:00 Understanding Third Quarter Entrepreneurs07:17 Creating Businesses for Your Life Season09:06 Defining Success and Setting Goals11:42 Time Management Mistakes New Entrepreneurs Make16:22 Productivity Hacks for Entrepreneurs19:26 Finding Balance and Productivity Techniques20:29 Streamlining Business Processes for Growth22:22 Understanding Risk and Obsolescence in Business25:24 Client Transformations: From Stuck to Confident28:37 Redefining Success in Entrepreneurship32:45 The Role of Mindset in Business Success36:01 Empowering Dreams and Personal Growth37:02 Lessons in Leadership and Tenacity