My journey into coaching took me by surprise in many ways but I now realise this was always my purpose and I needed to go through what I went through to evolve into the person I needed to be!
Let me explain…
I’m a physiotherapist by profession and have owned and run private Sports medicine clinics for the last 20+ years so in many ways I have coached people all my life. When you are treating patients they tell you everything about their life and you always work on more than just the physical problem they come to you with.
I met my now ex husband 12 years ago and there began a journey of emotional abuse which led to some very difficult years (that’s for another story) and my self-worth slowly reducing over time. I went to an event in Northampton in October 2016 and it changed everything! I had no idea who the guy was that was presenting the event or even really what it was about, I just knew I wanted to be there. He was an NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) coach from Sydney, Australia that was in the early days of his coaching and training business (which is now a multi million dollar company). Listening to him speak sparked so many things inside of me and made me need to know more so I went back the following weekend to attend his full weekend Breakthrough course and my mind was blown! He talked about the Practitioner training in Sydney and I just knew I had to be there. I also knew that my husband needed to hear this and learn too so he could break free from his own toxic behaviour patterns so we booked our trip to Australia to become NLP practitioners. Many people thought we had lost our minds but in fact I was just about to start the journey of truly understanding mine!…and life was never going to be the same!
I went to the training for Me, for my own personal development but whilst I was there I had the biggest lightbulb moment ever and it was a game changer.
I had become a ‘business owner’ and suddenly realised that an integral part of who I am is someone who creates change and makes an impact and I wasn’t doing that drowning under accounts, paperwork, polices and procedures. In that moment I realised I NEED TO COACH and to honour my purpose and passion in life and what makes me, ME. So I set about the process of selling my biggest clinic. With a turnover of around £250k this probably should have scared me but it just excited me and lit me up as a person. In the year after completing my Practitioner training I went on to become a Master practitioner of Hypnotherapy and then a Master Practitioner of NLP and Time Line Therapy®️ and Sunflower Ventures Coaching was born
I now coach people all over the world with business and personal coaching, run live events and absolutely LOVE what I do and more importantly it has grown me as a person and a Mum. Is it easy? Absolutely not. Is it worth it? F**K YES!
My biggest advice for anyone wanting to run a business is you have to be totally aligned with what you are doing. Your business is reflection of you and the results will also mirror that. The biggest hurdle for me in the early days was that I wasn’t aligned with what I was teaching because I was living in conflict in my personal life and that was reflecting in my income (and not is good way). What I was expecting clients to do and what I was accepting for me was very different and that’s not a stable basis for a business. Once I made changes to my own life and set myself free everything changed, especially my business. It’s a hard lesson to realise that your husband actually doesn’t want to change his toxic ways and that on an energetic level that’s holding you back from living your own truth. I coach from a place of truth and integrity and when I say to clients I hear you and I feel you it’s because I have been you.
In terms of juggling my business and being a Mum the biggest learning is to know that all kids really want and need is to feel safe and loved and to know they have your time. We need to always be present with them. It’s so easy to say ‘just hold on a minute I’m doing something’ when they ask a question. The most powerful lesson I learned was to just put my phone down when they spoke to me, no matter what I was in the middle of, so they always feel like they are important to me. Yes we are growing businesses for them and their future but that means nothing if we miss the present moment with them.
The NOW is where the beauty of everything in life is.
My top tips for anyone wanting to or already building a business is always focus on what you want. What you focus on expands so if you focus on lack and scarcity just know that will reflect in your business growth and income. The universe never gives you what you want, it gives you who you are being, so be aware of how you show up in your business and personal life.
Finally…… There’s no such thing as failure only lessons!
Every business will have its challenges and if it doesn’t you and your business aren’t growing. Embrace the things that don’t go well, learn from them and move the f**k on. I get excited about the challenges now as that’s where my biggest growth is and everything in life is either growing or dying including your business. My business focus now has nothing to do with money, yes we all run a business to earn money of course, but when I switched my focus 100% to service and how I can create an impact my business exploded ( the money comes anyway as a result of that).
If your business excites you, lights you up and grows you as person then you are in the right business xxx
