Today we’d like to introduce you to Leandra Nisbet.
Hi Leandra, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My path to entrepreneurship was shaped long before I ever launched a business. Growing up, I watched my parents run their own businesses, so the entrepreneurial mindset was part of my DNA from an early age. What I didn’t expect was how long it would take me to find my way back to it.
Before founding my business, I spent years in the banking and finance industry, working across quality assurance, team leadership, sales, small business relationship management, credit and lending. That experience gave me a practical understanding of how businesses operate, what makes them financially healthy and where they tend to struggle. When I factored in my education and the other roles and company cultures I experienced along the way, I was setting myself up for my next steps without even realizing it.
The turning point came when the culture at the organization I was with shifted in a way that no longer aligned with my values. I was finishing another degree and starting to explore what was next when a mentor asked me over coffee if I’d ever considered owning my own business. I laughed, not because it was a funny question, but because it immediately reminded me of everything I’d originally set out to do. Somewhere along the way, between promotions and corporate life, I had lost sight of my own goals.
From that moment, I was in full planning mode. I asked myself who I wanted to serve, where I could show up best and what kind of business I could be truly proud of. Stingray Advisory Group launched in 2013 and what started as a solo venture has grown into something I hadn’t fully envisioned at the start, including a team, a proprietary framework and a client base that spans true startups all the way to established founders who are successful on paper but stretched thin behind the scenes.
We’ve been recognized twice as a top women-owned business, named among Michigan’s economic bright spots and honored as a diversity-focused company. I’ve been recognized as a 40 Under 40 business leader. But what I’m most proud of is the day-to-day impact; watching business owners gain clarity, confidence and real, measurable results. That never gets old.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Absolutely not but, honestly, if it had been, I’d probably question whether I was pushing hard enough. The past decade-plus has brought a lot of external challenges – a global pandemic nobody saw coming, economic shifts, inflation, market uncertainty. The world that small business owners were navigating when I launched in 2013 looks very different from the one we’re operating in today and staying informed and responsive through all of it continues to require focus and a willingness to adapt.
That said, some of the most meaningful challenges I’ve faced have been internal ones and they’re the same ones I help my clients work through every day. Shifting from an employee mindset to a true owner’s mindset. Pricing for value rather than for what just feels safe. Building and trusting a team when everything ultimately comes back to you. I have a background in leadership, finance and team management but there’s a real difference between understanding something in theory and living it in practice. I have my MBA. And still, running your own business has a way of humbling you in ways that no classroom or corporate role fully prepares you for. The tech, the HR, the business development, the backend operations, it all lives with you. The wins are yours and so are the hard lessons.
What has helped me most is approaching every challenge as a learning opportunity. I always try to remember to ask myself, What did I gain from this? What do I want to do differently? What worked so well that I want to double down on it next time? That mindset doesn’t make the hard seasons easier in the moment, but it does make them worth something in the long run. And it’s a big part of what I bring into my work with clients because growth that sticks is almost always built on the lessons that stung a little.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about My company is Stingray Advisory Group.?
Stingray Advisory Group is a business growth coaching and advisory firm. We work with small business owners and entrepreneurs (particularly fellow women and underrepresented founders) who are ready to build businesses that are not just profitable but also aligned with their goals, their lives and the kind of impact they want to make. We’ve been doing this work since 2013 and we serve clients nationwide.
What we do goes beyond advice. We partner with our clients by helping them think strategically, build smart systems, grow their revenue and show up as confident, empowered leaders in their businesses and communities. Our work is anchored in our proprietary RISE Framework™, which addresses the four pillars we believe every thriving business must have in place: Revenue, Impact, Systems & Strategy, which leads to overall Empowerment. Every engagement, every conversation and every recommendation connects back to one or more of those pillars. It gives our clients a clear lens for understanding where they are, where they want to go and what needs to happen to get there.
Our flagship offering is the CEO Empowerment Intensive, which is a private, one-on-one engagement where I work directly with business owners to refine their processes, sharpen their strategy and help them step fully into the role of CEO. The results we see in clarity, in confidence and in measurable business outcomes are what I’m most proud of.
As for what sets us apart, a few things come to mind.
First, we don’t just teach this conceptually; we’ve lived it. I’ve personally navigated many of the same challenges my clients bring to the table: the mindset shifts, the pricing questions, the team-building hurdles, the pressure of wearing every hat at once. When I’m in a room with a client, I’m not speaking from a textbook. I’m speaking from experience.
Second, we are deeply committed to ongoing learning. Our team invests continuously in professional development so that we can stay current not just in our own field but in the industries our clients operate in. Being a great partner means staying informed and we take that seriously.
And third, I am the person I built this business to serve. When I started Stingray Advisory Group, I was a woman stepping into entrepreneurship and I didn’t see many people in the advisory space who reflected my lived experiences or understood the specific layers that came with it. I built the business I wished I’d had access to. That shared experience matters and I believe it is clear in how we show up for our clients every single day.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I’ll be honest; I am not a natural risk-taker. I’m Type A, analytical and I love having information before I make a move. So when people ask whether I see myself as someone who takes risks, my answer is a little more nuanced than a simple yes or no.
What I’ve learned over time is that my analytical nature is actually one of my greatest strengths … as long as I don’t let it become a liability. My ability to gather information, compare options and weigh outcomes thoughtfully is a real advantage. The danger comes when I let that tip into over-analysis, when I keep looking for one more data point instead of making the decision I already have enough information to make.
So one of the most important things I’ve done for myself is decide, upfront, how much information I actually need to move forward. Not everything I could possibly know, just enough to make an informed, confident decision. That one shift has changed how I approach almost everything.
So in answer to have I taken major risks, absolutely. My first hire. Outsourcing responsibilities I’d always handled myself. Significant investments in the business. Each of those moments carried real uncertainty and real stakes. But what helped me move through them wasn’t ignoring the fear, it was reframing the question.
Instead of asking “Is this too risky?,” I started asking “Is this an opportunity?” Instead of focusing on what could go wrong, I remind myself that I rarely face a true all-or-nothing scenario. There are almost always other options, other paths and other ways forward. That shift in framing makes an enormous difference for me. Risk feels a lot more manageable when you stop seeing it as something to survive and start seeing it as something to evaluate and then act on.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.stingrayadvisorygroup.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leandracreates
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/financialfreedomfundamentals
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leandrawilliams1/
