“When you go into that creative space where you’re making something, actively kicking goals and ticking off boxes… It creates more and more of the good stuff because you get energy from your achievements.”
“I’m having more fun in my business, I’m enjoying myself and I’m actually accomplishing more than what I had been doing on my own.”
Fiona Kane is the founder and owner of Informed Health (Greater Sydney-based nutrition and health coaching practice). She’s a nutritionist who had been in business for 8 years with 4 people on her team when she came to me for help.
She desperately needed to turn her business around as she was fighting hard to survive and keeping her doors open.
Goals & Desired Outcome
Fiona wanted to do more of what she loves without it being a ‘desperate time away’ from the business that she can’t afford to do.
“I want my staff seeing most of the clients and doing most of the nutrition work. It’s not that I don’t love seeing clients, but I’m passionate about getting my message out to the world.”
“I still want to be a part of the business but not be in it everyday doing one to one consulting. I want to be on radio, do webinars and more speaking to talk to lots of people where I can teach one to many, rather than one to one.”
“I want to have the time and freedom to work on my business rather than in my business.”
“I want to nurture the business where I can keep having students come through. We want to teach other people what we do because we’ve helped so many people get well and I believe we provide an important service to our community. It’s important to me that my clinic matters and it really serves a purpose.”
Before
Fiona reached a point where she realised she might have to close down her business after being in operation for 8 years.
Even though she had great service and product offerings, treated clients well and provided a great service… Her business was not working the way she wanted it to.
“I knew I had something really good in my business. I’ve got a great team, we do a great job, and we have great results with our clients. I mentored students as well as my staff.”
“Doing what we do wasn’t the issue. While I thought I had everything else right, the business was running into the ground. I was 6 months away from closing the business down.“
“I was really heart broken sitting with the idea of letting go of the business I’d built. It was gut wrenching. I knew I created something beautiful and special, and I didn’t want to believe that it was all going to end. I didn’t want to acknowledge it which is one of the reasons why it took me so long to do something about it.”
It wasn’t just the fact she was facing business closure; Fiona’s business has felt stagnant for a while because she was operating with frantic energy.
“I’ve been stuck in the day-to-day running around in circles. It’s so hard.”
“I wasted a lot of money and time on things that probably didn’t matter. I really struggled being all over the place all the time.“
During
As I worked as Fiona’s coach and advisor, our work together started with a deep dive analysis where I took the time to fully understand the core elements of her business — how her business works, how her operations run, how she spends her days, how she works with her team, how they’re using the resources they have and how she wanted her business to work.
Throughout our 6 month engagement, I provided her with accountability and guidance she needed, as well as helping her make the mindset, emotional and behavioural shifts required to turn her business around.
“I was trying to have a business but I still somewhat had a hobby that was trying to look like a business. My business seemed like a thriving business on the outside but it wasn’t operating that way.”
“I was doing the same things over and over again, and wondering why my results weren’t changing. How can you make your business work, when you don’t know what’s not working? You can’t just keep going along, doing things you’re comfortable doing.”
“Working with Jen forced me to grow up as a business owner, taking ownership and responsibility that I needed. That meant the buck stops with me.”
“Jen made me really look at what’s actually happening in the business. I realised I needed to understand aspects of my business I was not interested in.”
“If the finances aren’t right, I can’t blame the bookkeeper, the accountant nor the receptionist. I can’t shirk that responsibility just because I don’t like numbers.”
“If things aren’t running the way it should, it’s my fault and it’s my problem. You can’t just hope that it will get better. If we want our businesses to grow, we have to grow ourselves.”
“I don’t need to be an expert in areas I’m not good at, but now I want to understand it enough to be in charge of my business.”
As Fiona learned to embrace and own her role as the business owner, I helped her remove the overwhelm and distractions she was experiencing on a day-to-day basis, which allowed her to focus on the important things that impacted the trajectory of her business.
“Jen helped me focus working on the right things in my business. I got rid of a lot of shiny objects that stopped me from doing what I needed to do, because she helped me learn how not to be distracted.”
“She made me really look at who I am marketing to so I can define who my ideal clients are. There were a lot of questions I couldn’t answer about my clients. When you actually look at your own data, it’s different than what you thought it is.”
“She also forced me to look at my financials which has been a godsend because I didn’t understand the financials of my business and I realised how ridiculous that was.”
During our coaching engagement, I continued to provide support, guidance and acted as a sounding board to help her make better decisions about the activities she was doing in her business.
“Jen’s got all the practical know-how. She helped me think differently and see things differently, know things I don’t know and learn things I’m not comfortable with.”
“We do have a laugh along the way, but she keeps you on track, helps you problem solve and gives you ideas on how to manage different things. She doesn’t let you have excuses, and you really need that because otherwise, we could just write to-do lists and do things ourselves.”
“Jen understands in so much detail what you need to do, and tell you things you never even would have thought about. She will never ask someone to do something that she wouldn’t be prepared to do herself, so she doesn’t ask anymore of you than what she’s willing to do.”
“You can only get yourself so far in business until you find yourself going around and around in circles. You need someone to help you perform better and get further.”
“Jen came in at a time when I needed someone more than anything. She held my hand, she understood, and she didn’t judge me. She just made me do the work I needed to do… because that was my biggest fear.”
“You don’t go around telling other business owners that your business isn’t going well. I was ashamed that my business wasn’t successful. The fear and the shame of losing the business was huge.”
After
Fiona’s business is still operating today. Her confidence grew as she learned to take control of her business and optimised the way she was working and operating day-to-day.
“Within just a couple of months of working with Jen, my business dramatically changed. We’ve achieved a hell of a lot in a few months. I’ve come a long long way.”
“In July, I thought I’d be closed by December and I couldn’t see any other way to turn my business around. The financial figures have changed so dramatically that I know not only the business will work, but it will thrive.”
“I didn’t lose my staff. I was more definite about making sure the things I want to be done were done. I changed my focus a lot and also made sure everyone’s focus was aligned.”
“Jen helped me keep my business owner hat on all the time. She held me accountable and helped me stay in a focused place consistently because it’s easy to distract ourselves with shiny objects and things that are easy.”
Not only did Fiona put in the hard work to turn her business around, but the change in her mindset, focus and behaviour meant she was able to perform the way she wanted to.
As a result of improved personal performance, she became more productive, created the momentum required to gain the traction she wanted to see as business results followed suit.
“Getting things in motion is one of the biggest things. Nothing was changing before and I felt this stagnation with the business. Once you’re in motion and when you continue to move forward, momentum kicks in and you get stuff done.”
“There is still a lot of activity in my business but now I feel like I’m in control, because my busyness became activities with tangible, measured outcomes.”
“I’m not putting out fires everywhere anymore. Now I have a creative energy rather than the frantic energy of the day-to-day stuff that is exhausting.”
“When you go into that creative space where you’re making something, actively kicking goals and ticking off boxes… That’s an energy that creates more and more of the good stuff because you get energy from your achievements.”
Fiona got her mojo back and is feeling inspired again about her business. The work we did together had a powerful impact on every aspect of her work and life.
“I’m having more fun in my business, I’m enjoying myself and I’m actually accomplishing more than what I had been doing on my own.”
“Before, I felt like an imposter pretending to be a business person, and now I actually feel like I am a business person, and not an imposter. I feel a lot more proud of myself because I’m actually making it all happen.”
“I almost feel like Jen saved my life. If you want to work with someone who is real and straight up with you, keeps you accountable in a kind way, she’s your person. She is the real deal.”