3 years of questions, 3 years of answers….sort of
It’s official! Full Bloom Acres has officially been in business for 3 years! I’ve been a Holistic Nutritionist and Health Coach for 3 years! This means….in case you lost track, the world has been crazy for 3 years! (Ok, that last one is supposed to be funny…maybe not so much…)
I have learned so much from my clients. I’ve learned so much about myself. I’ve learned so much about business, marketing, and finances. And I’ve learned so much about the field of alternative healthcare.
I thought it would be fun to go through some of the biggest ah-ha moments I’ve had over these last 3 years of coaching people.
But first, to set the groundwork, here’s a brief history of my business…
On May 1, 2020, I started my private practice, Full Bloom Acres. I completed grad school in April of that year. The first week of March 2020, I spent out in Oregon speaking at a conference at Oregon State University with members of my college. This is the event that kicked off my new business.
I was finishing up my coursework for my final two classes while I was on the plane. I was putting the finishing touches on everything and making sure all my assignments were turned in and completed. I was studying for my finals at the airport.
I had a business plan ready. I had a four-part, on-site class developed, including all the materials, presentation slides, marketing, and a list of businesses I was going to deliver it to. I had an amazing plan with a local business to develop its employee wellness program. I had my office furnished and hung my custom-made sign. I had my website, social media, and backend operations ready and waiting for all the clients to pour in.
While in Oregon, I remember one of the faculty members saying we needed to stop and pick up some “N-95s” before we went to the campus, just in case. What the kale?! What the kale is an “N-95”? A book? A chemical? A plane? I was confused why we were bringing a plane to a health conference….true story.
I had no clue that anything was going on.
Yep, a week later, the world shut down.
Everything changed in a blink of an eye.
Little did I know that my first task as a business owner would be to tear down my ENTIRE business, redesign my ENTIRE business plan, and figure out how to work with people in a world where we couldn’t work with people. Before I even worked with my first client, I had to change everything.
Every plan I made in grad school changed.
Everything I thought my business would be changed right before my eyes.
As a business owner, you expect things to change all the time, and needing to make decisions on the fly is the norm.
Talk about being thrown into the flames…
Three years later, my business looks completely different than I had planned.
The course I spent an entire semester developing and marketing is still sitting on the shelf. The research is now outdated and the graphics are no longer relevant.
I missed walking in my graduation ceremony. I was really looking forward to showing my husband around Portland and walking across that stage wearing my honors tassel and Master’s hood. Instead, I watched a virtual presentation from my coach, sitting in a tank top, shorts, and my graduation cap, which took me hours to paint just right.
I’m still crushed that that magnificent moment was taken away from me.
But the biggest change that occurred is that my business has gone 100% virtual. I never anticipated that. I never even knew that was possible.
The last 3 years have been filled with amazing success stories, so many tears, and so many hard lessons. If nothing else, it has taught me that helping people reach their dreams is what I was meant to do.
When I look back through everything I’ve learned over the past 3 years, it’s hard to narrow it down to just a few ah-ha moments. But to not completely overwhelm you (or bore you!), I’ll try to keep things moving.
The biggest lessons I’ve learned in 3 years of business in a post-COVID world:
Number 1
Coaching is one of the best investments you can make in yourself and your business. If I had to choose just one piece of advice to give to people going into the alternative health field, or any high-achieving person really, it would be to hire a coach. Immediately. Do it right now. This article can wait. That’s how invaluable coaching will be to your life and your business.
I wish someone would have told me this three years ago. Maybe they did, but I wasn’t listening.
HIRE A COACH.
There, I said it again. Not just because I am a coach myself, I’m saying this as a person who is very high achieving and is doing all the things.
Coaching has given me the things that I could not give to myself.
Coaching is the reason I have gone from running a business that I loved to owning a business that I am in love with.
Currently, I have two coaches. A business coach and a personal trainer/health coach. They both serve very different purposes in my life. These two humans are amazing.
The amount of growth I have seen in just a few short months of working with both of them has been astounding. It doesn’t even compare to what I was doing on my own for years.
If you are a high-achieving person, you need to hire a coach. A coach can help you slow down, make decisions, and evaluate as you go. You will accomplish more with their expertise in a month than you could on your own in a year.
There are so many different types of coaches out there. Some are amazing (like mine!). Some are not so great. You need to find the right fit. Because when you do, your world will change.
Number 2
I learned to walk the walk and talk the talk - surround yourself with the people you want to be. I’m no longer sitting in the shadows wishing I could be some idealized version of myself.
Through putting in the hard work to improve my weaknesses and evaluate my shortcomings, with the help of my coaches, a whole new world has opened up.
I learned that if you want to be successful, you need to surround yourself with successful people. And if you’re a high achiever, especially, you need to surround yourself with other high achievers.
The biggest difference I have found since putting myself at the table of other amazingly successful humans is that there is a significant and very noticeable difference in energy. I’m no longer looking in from the outside, wondering how they all got there.
I’m no longer questioning every move I make, wondering if it was right or wrong.
I’m no longer seeking validation from people who bring me down.
A really big turn-around moment for me was when I decided to stop trying to fit in and start living true to my values, both as a health practitioner and as a human.
I cut out a lot of the fluff that was weighing me down. Many of the habits I had developed no longer served me or were ones I wanted to broadcast to the world!
I decided to develop new habits. To model my life around my values.
It’s difficult being in the health field when so many other practitioners don’t practice what they preach. They want you to give up processed foods, use all organic skincare products, and never use a microwave when they do all of those things in private.
I’m not saying I’m perfect. I’m far from perfect. We all are.
But once I took a good, hard look in the mirror, I realized some of my actions were misaligned with what I was asking my clients to do. I don’t ask my clients to do anything I wouldn’t be willing to do myself.
Instead of trying to appear to have it all together on the outside, I’ve embraced my own wellness journey and started sharing it with the world. As I said, I’m far from perfect but I’m taking steps every day in the right direction.
And that is how you walk the walk and talk the talk. It’s not about being perfect. It’s about being just a little bit better today than you were yesterday.
Number 3
Supplements may be the unsung hero of our stories. Three years ago, my stance on supplements was simple: supplements are a waste of money. Since most supplement companies today are extensions of the pharmaceutical industry, it’s difficult for me to get on board with their widespread use. I used to believe that we could obtain all our needed nutrients from the food we eat if we eat a well-rounded, healthy diet. (The exception is always vitamin B12 for those eating plant-based.)
This is one of the ah-ha moments that has changed my day-to-day life and my recommendations in my practice the most.
The years of COVID have taught us that we as a society are much worse off in terms of nutrient deficiencies than previously thought. We saw first-hand that nutrient deficiencies produced worse outcomes for those at greatest risk.
We saw that this virus tanks vitamin D levels to a point of single-digit numbers (I recommend vitamin D levels are at or above 100). This low number is indicative of clinical depression and those with low vitamin D levels were more likely to end up in the hospital than those with higher levels.
We saw that those with low glutathione levels had a high risk of negative outcomes. We saw that giving hospitalized patients high doses of vitamin C drastically improved outcomes. There are several other examples, but we’ll leave it at that.
We have also seen several studies come out on specific nutrients and their impact on the immune system and overall health.
What we once thought could be achieved through food alone is proving to be nearly impossible thanks to our depleted soil, poor lifestyle habits, and inaccurate recommendations by government agencies.
My view on most supplements remains the same. The ones you buy at the grocery store or the drugstore are not likely doing you any good. And, in reality, could be causing damage. I’m talking about synthetic supplements, those supplements that are created in a lab from chemicals.
There are a few remaining supplement companies out there that have not been compromised by Big Pharma. Last I checked, that number was 3. Think of how many different supplement brands there are out there. Yikes.
So, my view on whole-food supplements has changed. Since these supplements are made from components of food, the body uses them as it would use food. You can’t really take too much, just like you can’t eat too much of one vegetable and reach toxic levels. Sure, there are a few exceptions, but likely, your body would become sick and throw it up before you could even reach that dose.
Because our food system is so messed up, our soil so depleted, and our lifestyle so hectic, I believe we all could benefit from whole-food supplements.
I pride myself on being able to make individualized recommendations based on each person’s needs and using bloodwork to see actual data and what he or she may need. I have spent many hours with my head in the research and learned how to make customized supplement protocols that produce real results.
We’re living in a different world, and what we put into our bodies is even more important than it was just three years ago.
Number 4
The only business training you need is experience, and you get that from falling on your face…a lot. When I started this business, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t know about finances, marketing, or business strategy. I had no idea what a landing page was, a sales page, or a funnel. I didn’t know what the term “evergreen” meant (well, not in that way!).
The only budgeting I did was for myself and my own bills.
I didn’t know what html code was. No one ever taught me how to make a P&L or how to ask for referrals or testimonials. I didn’t know how to write a contract or when I could be sued for using “stock” images in my marketing and social media content. Yikes.
To be fair, I still don’t know anything about coding, but at least I know what it is and to avoid that section of my website!
In grad school, my program was designed to get students ready for the real world and to understand what it takes to be a practitioner. Well, only one semester of anything close to business training is just not adequate!
But to be honest, I don’t think it would have done much good…
I learned how to run a business by running a business.
I learned how to be accountable to no one but myself. How to motivate myself to research, try something, and then try again when that thing fails. I learned how to fail, hard and fast.
But I learned how to dust myself off. I bet they don’t teach that in business school!
Come to think of it, what do they teach in business school? Hmmm….the most successful people I know in business don’t actually have degrees…
The only way to learn the things you need to learn is through doing them. Getting up every day, even when it sucks and you have no idea what to do, and doing it. Doing something.
As if COVID didn’t force me into learning an entirely new skill set, diving into a business when the world isn’t insane would have taught me plenty!
Every lesson has been learned with a sense of accomplishment. Sure that feeling usually comes after a few tears and more than a few letdowns, but being in full control of your future is rewarding beyond measure.
Owning your own business is scary and not for the faint of heart, but in my opinion, it’s the most rewarding job because it’s the ultimate test of what you’re truly made of.
Number 5
Mindset is everything. This one took me a long time to learn. Actually, I didn’t fully accept this ah-ha moment until a few months ago.
When I started working with my business coach in December of 2022, I began doing several mindset activities. I started evaluating everything and questioning my beliefs about myself and my business, it’s part of the process.
At first, I thought it was stupid. I remember fighting the urge to think, “I paid this much money for someone to tell me the key to my success was simply thinking a different thought?”
But I did the activities anyway. I showed up, I got coached, I kept my mind and my heart open, and something changed.
I don’t even recognize the person I was back in December. My mind and my thought processes now are so incredibly different, it’s difficult to even understand my beliefs back then. But I can acknowledge them. Because if it wasn’t for that girl who took a leap of faith and thought outside of the box, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
Mindset work changes the wiring in your brain. I know it sounds a little woo-woo, but it’s not. It’s science. It’s how the brain works. You can simply choose to think different thoughts and therefore, have different beliefs.
I’ve done it. My peers have done it. And millions of other successful people have done it.
But a funny thing happened. The universe started aligning when I started the process of rewiring my mind.
Shortly after beginning with my business coach, I attended a health and wellness conference. Guess what one of the underlying themes was?
Mindset.
Then I hired a personal trainer. Guess what one of his main points of coaching is?
Mindset.
Then I started listening to new podcasts, reading new books, and researching new ideas. No joke, in every single one, mindset came up at least once.
Now, because I have a curious mind and like to play devil’s advocate, I had to wonder, was this theme coming up because it’s “trendy” right now? Is that now just a buzzword floating around everywhere? Or has it always been there, I just wasn’t open to listening?
My gut tells me it’s the latter.
This experience, the shift in the universe that I’ve experienced over the last six months in particular, has proven to me the idea that you get back what you put out.
You are given exactly what you need at exactly the right time. It might not make sense at the moment, but the universe knows, if you are open to it.
The ah-ha moment that has been the most profound in my life is that to be successful, whatever that means to you, your eyes and your heart must be open to new ideas, experiences, and adventures. The rest will fall into place.
Well, thank you for sticking it out with me on that journey through the last three years of my life! I sincerely thank you for joining me on this journey, no matter if our time together has just begun or if you’ve been with me since the beginning.
We’re on the path to doing great things together and I hope you will continue to be a part of my journey.
Want to learn more about working with me and my 6-month one-on-one coaching program? Click the button below to get on my calendar for a FREE 30-minute Discovery Call! Don’t hesitate as I did. Your body is ready now!