Charlene Carr's Blog, page 7

Following the call by being a coach to coaches

Jennifer Trask, Mindset Coach and Business Advisor for Coaches and Healers, pretty much started her coaching career by accident.

“I really believe if you have a dream in your heart you have the capacity to make it happen,” says Jennifer.

“We’re not meant to suffer. Life is supposed to be fun, and I’m not negating that sometimes real life can be tough, because it can. But I think people are suffering too much and it’s not necessary – it’s more of a mind game. Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”

She pauses a moment before continuing. “It’s not what happens to you, it’s what you do about it.”

Like all of us, Jennifer has had pain and struggle in her life, and one of the things she’s doing about it is using the lessons she’s learned to help coaches figure out  how to break through the pain or mental/emotional barriers holding them back, so that they can then help others.

As a coach, one of the most important lessons Jennifer has learned is that people, herself included, struggle with discovering who they really are, becoming okay with that, and putting that out into the world.

”That sounds very simplistic,” says Jennifer, “but in reality it’s a messy process.” A process she needed to go through in order to coach others. “You can only take someone as far as you’ve gone,” says Jennifer.

Before she could help others find themselves and their voice, she had to discover her own.

That journey wasn’t a direct path.

After University, Jennifer spent a year travelling in Australia, came home to Newfoundland to work in her family’s business, then decided it was time to get a real job.

She moved to Calgary to be a sales rep for L’Oréal, and within six months had the job down pat. Ready for something new, she asked her boss what it would take to get into a marketing position. He started pointing at the areas in the office.

Realizing she’d have to spend five years in five different jobs doing things she didn’t want to do, just to get a job she may not like, Jennifer rethought her goals.

She returned to school to get an MBA and, while there, a mentor suggested she go to an event called ‘The Power Within’.

When Tony Robbins stepped onto the stage, within seconds Jennifer knew her life would never be the same, because she finally knew what she was meant to do with it: help people transform. Help them be happy.

“There are so many ways to do that,” says Jennifer, “but I’ve always loved speaking and was never afraid of it … the bigger the crowd the better.”

With this overarching purpose in place, Jennifer made a list of five main things she wanted out of her life and career. 1) To help as many people as she could, 2) make as much money as she could, 3) be location independent, 4) love what she does (so she never works a day in her life),  and 5) be her own boss.

In 2008, she started her first Network Marketing business and thought she’d found the answer to her life’s goals.

But it was just one step on the road to her real destination.

“I learned so much about coaching,” says Jennifer, “because the top network marketers are the best coaches.”

While in that position, she also focused on personal development, social media marketing, and internet marketing.

With this knowledge in place, Jennifer started leading social media workshops and consulting, which quickly transitioned into working as a marketing consultant.

A few years into this work, Jennifer realized she was making more money in her side gig as a marketing consultant than in her Network Marketing business.

So she made a switch.

Shortly after, it came time to transition her focus again.

“I noticed some people were paying me to tell them what to do and they weren’t doing it,” says Jennifer. “It didn’t make any sense. “ She needed to find a way to make sure her clients actually made use of the teaching they were paying her for.

That’s when she fell into coaching.

One of her favourite clients was a life coach. “I loved the idea that I would help a lot of people by helping her,” says Jennifer. “It was like magic working together.”

Which wasn’t the case with some of her other clients. Jennifer felt stretched trying to keep up to date with trends in a variety of industries so decided to niche down and focus exclusively on helping clients who were focused on helping people lead better lives.

She became a coach to coaches.

Most coaches aren’t entrepreneurs to start, so Jennifer helps them become the people they need to become in order to run a company that gets results.

“They may or may not be used to being a leader and a visionary and superbly brave and courageous on a consistent basis,” says Jennifer.

So, she helps them strip away those limiting beliefs and inner-conflicts to access the courage hidden within. “It’s almost like watching a flower begin to flourish,” says Jennifer.

First though, she needed to witness this flourishing within herself.

“If you plant a flower,” says Jennifer, “within the seed it has everything: it has the petals, it has the fragrance, the leaves … but right now it’s just a seed.”

When she began her coaching business, she was a seed. “The process of growing and flourishing into the person who I knew I could become was the biggest struggle,” says Jennifer.

It was an unleashing of herself, and everything she already had inside her but couldn’t always see.

Now that she’s done that work, she’s confident in guiding her clients to do it for themselves.

“The inner work is the scary work,” says Jennifer, and it’s not always pretty. “People avoid it as much as they can.” They try to get band-aid solutions for internal problems, but, says Jennifer, “happiness is an internal game.”

She adds that no amount of money or professional success can bring happiness until people have found it on their own. “I really don’t think a lot of people are doing that for themselves and that’s why they’re not happy,” says Jennifer, “you feel trapped in someone who is not you.”

But once you give yourself permission to be yourself, it’s freedom.

Not that it’s a one-time fix, of course.

Throughout her years as a coach, Jennifer has had the standard breakdowns, wondering if she should quit, or just go get a ‘real’ job. But when it comes down to it, she knows this is her calling.

“I’m very big on following the call,” says Jennifer. “I do a lot of things normal people wouldn’t do.”

If you’d asked her fifteen to twenty years ago what her life would have looked like today, she’d have said she’d travel the traditional path of marriage, kids, a house, and a corporate career.

“I’m the complete opposite,” says Jennifer. She’s a proud aunt. She owns her own business. She trots around the world. “Who would have known it?” she says with a laugh. “I wouldn’t change anything.”

Jennifer listened to her inner guidance to live this life she’s living and she encourages her clients to do the same. A lot of times it doesn’t look like the normal, sane thing to do – it seems like the opposite, and so people may call you crazy, says Jennifer.

But, she adds, “Nobody knows what’s better for you than you … When you listen to your inner guidance it’s sort of like the universe saying this is the fastest path you have – go, go, go!”

Are you a coach ready to accelerate your business while giving your clients your best? Check out Jennifer on her website, where you can get The Ultimate Coaching Business Checklist + Video Series plus her Top 18 MUST HAVE Tools List or, visit her on Facebook.

Have some thoughts about Jennifer’s journey or see parallels to your own? Scroll down to “Join the Conversation!” 

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The post Following the call by being a coach to coaches appeared first on Charlene Carr.

Suit up, nerd-out, save wildlife – all in a day’s work

As a conservation biologist, Laura King isn’t just a scientist; she’s an advocate for nature and wildlife.

She also has a passion for seeing more women become scientists who step out of the lab and effect change in the field.

During her presentation for the Women in Science and Engineering Newfoundland and Labrador (WISE NL) speaker series, she asked the 82% female audience: “If you’re doing great science and nobody knows about it, is that what you want? Are you doing science so that you can influence the future? Or inspire women? Or influence policy?”

Laura is ‘doing great science’ for all those reasons.

“The worst for me would be to be 80 years old and look back and be like, ‘Oh, I did really cool stuff but it didn’t change anything,” says Laura. “It didn’t make anybody’s life better, it didn’t help any wildlife anywhere, no bird is here because of me.”

Currently, Laura works as a conservation biologist at SAM, a stewardship non-profit committed to the conservation and enhancement of habitat across Newfoundland and Labrador.

As part of her job, she visits towns and cities throughout the province to see what opportunities there are for conservation.

“Over the past little while there’s been this call to scientists to ‘suit up,’” says Laura.

One of the ways they can do this is by influencing policy to preserve wildlife, or helping to ensure better air-quality and water-quality.

These changes, says Laura, can be driven by what society, governments, and corporations want, but it’s the scientists who are able to show exactly what’s going wrong in nature and what can be done to fix or improve it.

“There’s lots of different ways to contribute, but I like it that I get to be outside, talk to people, and make stuff happen,” says Laura.

In the first few months of working with SAM, she saw two conservation areas assigned into law as a direct result of her work. “It’s only a few hundred hectares,” says Laura, “but they matter to the community.”

“A lot of times with these areas people sort of know they’re special but they’re not really sure why,” says Laura. “So to be able to do part of the work that maps them out and shows what’s there, and to hear community leaders and councillors stand up and say, ‘We have 120 species of birds here. We never knew that. Isn’t that amazing?’ … it feels really good.”

“It’s the exact opposite of research,” says Laura. “It’s very tangible.”

Laura’s love for science, wildlife, and helping the animals came at an early age.

In Brownies and Guides, she loved getting the nature badges–bird watching, camping, and animal tracking.

Even earlier than that, when told to depict what she wanted to be when she grew up, Laura drew herself as a biologist. “A painting of me in a suit working with a duck,” says Laura.

Another key moment was when her grandmother gave her an issue of National Geographic that focused on scientists tracking animals.

“I was obsessed with this magazine,” says Laura. “To this day I have it in my room.”

It wasn’t always an easy journey to follow through with those dreams to get where she is today, but Laura persevered.

Her first major challenges happened during her teenage years.

“If you’re a really keen person, society can consider you a nerd,” says Laura. In high school, wanting to be a scientist or a biologist or working really hard so you can get a scholarship, says Laura, “it’s not always cool.”

But, suggests Laura, if that’s the case, it just means you haven’t found ‘your people’ yet.

She encourages youth to put the hard work in to become who they want to be or do what they want to do. And when you do that, she says, you’ll most likely find incredible people who’ll inspire you, “people who think that nerding out is cool.”

Of course, she tells the audience at the WISE NL speaker series, there’ll always be “people who don’t believe in you or don’t treat you the way you want to be treated for whatever reason … your age or your gender or just who they are.”

Recently, as an adult working in the field, she’s had to go through some of that.

“It makes you question yourself and makes you realize that you have to do things on your own,” says Laura. “If you take yourself seriously, that’s really all that matters.”

Even though fifty-two percent of PhDs in biology are female, says Laura, “I show up at a meeting in my biology suit, with my backpack and binoculars,” and people look  dumbfounded.  One woman questioned, “You’re the biologist? I didn’t expect a young lady,” and then a few minutes later, asked again, “But are you a real biologist?”

“Being underestimated or undervalued or even disrespected happens, and it happens a fair bit in the field,” says Laura, “but accept it as part of life and the consequence of being a social animal.”

She’s also experienced men laughing at her ideas, and not respecting her as a biologist.

“People tell you to your face that your ideas are stupid or that they’ll never work,” says Laura, “but if you want to have impact, that’s what you’ve got to do.”

Keep presenting those ideas, and keep doing the work, despite the barriers.

For female scientists working in the field, the barriers are even more pronounced.

“I have so many certifications to drive a boat because those are easy. You just go to a class and get a certification,” says Laura, “but I’m still not that good at it.”

No one has ever shown her how to properly trailer a boat, yet she sees her male counterparts in the field receive these types of lessons.

“We can take all the courses,” says Laura, of women, “but still nobody’s ever shown me how to do certain things … Nobody’s ever said, here, let me show you how to take apart a chainsaw,” even though those skills make a huge difference in the field.

Job descriptions in biology and other science-based field work describe specific labour tasks. And so women don’t often apply because they know they can’t do the work.

And if they do apply?

“I’ve seen women with graduate degrees get out-competed by people with undergraduate degrees,” says Laura, because they can’t do the labour work.

In her WISE NL talk, she questioned how to fix that. Should these lessons come from fathers teaching their daughters, or should it be more formalized through education, or as a component in the field?

“I’m never going to be as strong as a man,” says Laura.

She shared the stats that men have about 1.7 times the grip strength of women and about 1.65 the squat weight, which means women need to find workarounds.

“If you’re a woman, you kind of need to be acting like a monster,” says Laura. “So what do we do on days off? Lot’s of push-ups.”

Women need to think of strength training as part of their professional development if they want to be working in a field that requires labour tasks.

“It’s not that we can’t be that strong,” says Laura. “It’s just that we have to work hard … we have to change the culture.”

Changing the culture isn’t just something Laura focuses on regarding her professional work environment, but for society as a whole and, specifically, her passion for nature and conservation efforts.

“Being with wildlife, being in nature, being outdoors, it’s like shifting into an entirely different mode” says Laura. “Nature can help stress melt away.”

It ties to physical activity, she says. “We’re living stressful lives, running around with two or three screens in front of us … in a typical day I may look at five different screens.”

Many of us miss that connection to nature, she says, even though we may not realize that’s what our life is missing.

“You’re not the same person you are when you’re hunched over a cubicle desk that you are running across a trail,” says Laura. “It gives you a chance to work with a different mind and a body that works in different ways.”

“I think of myself as part of an ecosystem,” says Laura. “When I go outside I’m just a mammal walking down a trail. I’m part of something bigger than myself.”

Laura was awarded the “Canada’s New Noah” scholarship from Wildlife Preservation Canada, which enabled her to spend six intensive months in Mauritius learning about conservation both in the field and the classroom. To learn more about her journey, check out her blog or, to see some pics, follow her on Twitter or Instagram.

Have some thoughts or questions about Laura’s journey? Have you also wanted to be a scientist or share Laura’s passion for wildlife? Scroll down to “Join the Conversation!”

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Moving her way to mental health – the funky, fun way.

For years Cindy Butt, the owner-operator of FarOut Fitness, a studio that focuses on women’s health and wellness, never thought she was athletic.

She wasn’t good at team sports, so she wasn’t active.

It was only when she discovered fun, non-competitive ways to get moving that her passion for fitness was born.

As a Junior High French language teacher, Cindy saw the same lack of activity she’d experienced most of her life in the kids who didn’t like team sports.

So, she decided to take her own growing love of fun, funky, fitness and use it to help her students get moving.

She had them hula hooping, line dancing, using resistance balls, and doing yoga. She even initiated active art sessions—such as painting the whole periodic table on one of her classroom walls and the Arc de Triomphe on another.

“The kids needed it,” says Cindy, “and they loved it.”

The more active Cindy became with her students, the more she realized her own love and need of regular movement in her life.

Cindy started teaching fitness and wellness outside of school, and not just for kids.

It became her mission.

At the time, Cindy’s social circle wasn’t very active. She started seeking out people who liked non-team sports – hiking, skiing, snowshoeing. Now, everyone she knows is active.

Around this time she also met her partner, Cam, who loves to spend time on the ocean, hiking, basically anything outdoors – campfires, camping, swimming.

“I realized how much it helped me,” says Cindy, “without realizing the whole mental health issue.”

Cindy has a B.A , B.Ed, and M. Ed.

She also discovered she has BPII, ADHD and SAD.

That’s a lot of acronyms in her life, but she views them as all contributing to what she calls her superpower.

“It was a freaking journey,” she says of learning about these diagnoses and learning how to live with them. But she had a lot of help, and still does.

“I remember at one point I was experiencing many ups and downs,” she says, “and Cam asked, ‘What can I do when this happens?’” She told him to get her outside.

“A lot of people, me moreso, need to be outside and be active in order to function well,” says Cindy, “And a lot of people need to eat well to function and learn.”

This realization made her role as a teacher harder and harder. It became difficult for her to see what students were eating in the cafeteria or see them forced to sit at their desks for so long.

Many of her students were stooped over in their chairs, already developing hunches from inactivity. It seemed what was most important to her students’ well-being was being ignored and Cindy could see the affects on their mental health.

She did what she could, but there were limits within the school system. The standard curriculum, of course, had to come first.

These roadblocks and her inability to help her students have the consistently active lives they needed, began to take their toll on Cindy.

Her hair started to break, she developed stomach issues, and had trouble sleeping.

“I looked like an agitated zombie, with no sleep but at the same time hyper-minded,” says Cindy. “I wasn’t able to do what I knew I was supposed to do,” which made her feel like a hypocrite.

In 2010, in the midst of a breakdown, Cindy stopped work due to sickness and then took a leave of absence from teaching.

“Everyone thought I was going crazy,” says Cindy, “which I was.”

Leaving teaching was a scary step that left Cindy panicked. “I didn’t know how I was going to make money and pay my bills and have a meltdown all at the same time,” says Cindy.

But she clung to her newly discovered mission with a refined focus – the belief that getting moms and ladies to embrace fitness and wellness was the best way send her newfound love into the world.

“If moms and ladies are doing it,” says Cindy, “they tell everyone, they tell kids.”

They spread the word.

When Cindy had been a school-teacher, her paid fitness endeavours started out as “just fun.” Her ‘coffee-money’ and a non-traditional way to help people laugh and move.

She and her partner, Cam, started doing salsa performances, belly dancing performances, and hula hooping workshops. They also sold decorated ‘hot-hoops.’

Next, she rented a school gym and started teaching multiple times a week. “It was moving toward the thing that I could do and my only answer at the time,” says Cindy.

Just about the time her two year leave of absence was spent and she had to decide whether to go back to teaching or pursue the business full time, she sat down with her partner to come up with an official name for the business by thinking of all the things that felt like ‘her.’

Words that came to mind were weird, strange, special, fun, funky, and far out.

They put those last two words together and FarOut Fitness was born: A safe, welcoming environment where Cindy turns women onto fitness that’s never boring.

So many people struggle to be active, says Cindy, and they don’t always know what to do at a gym. They torture themselves, counting down the minutes to just get through their workouts.

At FarOut Fitness, Cindy strives to create an atmosphere of excitement where people feel their workouts fly by.

To contribute to this, she only hires instructors she believes will bond with students, helping them feel they belong not just to a gym, but to a community.

In recent years, Cindy’s biggest passion in fitness has shifted to working with new moms. She loves to see the way moms who would otherwise be at home feeling isolated “light up about fitness” and make connections.

She even hired babysitters to be in the space so mommies can get their workout in, knowing their kids are right there, safely doing their own thing.

Running your own business is never easy, and often stressful. But the enjoyment and motivation Cindy sees from her ladies’ success, helps keep her going.

That and making sure she spends time on self-care, with a focus on both mental and physical health. If she doesn’t, she says “I would be living in a shell of my life and not the whole person that I can be.”

She has a list of strategies to help her ward off the hard times.

She eats well. She monitors the amount of sleep she’s getting, and she spends time doing activities that help relax her mind if it’s going “crazy and hyper,” such as crocheting mini-kettlebells.

“It’s a focused activity that I can calm my mind with in the evenings,” says Cindy. “I don’t care what they look like. They’re really cute; extremely imperfect.”

Most importantly, she makes sure she spends a lot of time outside and a lot of time with her family. “I don’t operate well and they don’t operate well if we don’t all work together,” says Cindy.

Reflecting on the path she’s taken over the past decade, Cindy sees that in order to be healthy and teach, she had to leave teaching.

Now she’s reaching a bigger audience. She still works in schools through wellness grants for mental and physical health, and she’s creating a community where parents and kids learn to love fitness together.

Want to learn more about Cindy’s own brand of funky, fun, fitness? Visit the FarOut Fitness Website for information on classes, personal training and registration or Follow FarOut Fitness on Facebook.

Have some thoughts about Cynthia’s journey or see parallels to your own? Scroll down to “Join the Conversation!”

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How to overcome obstacles and creatively fight the struggle

When Cynthia Ferrie landed a job as a senior consultant at a firm six months before graduation, she saw her life unfolding before her—and it looked perfect.

Fast forward about a year, and the dream fizzled out.

Despite making it clear to her boss during the hiring process that she planned to have more children, the announcement that she was going on maternity was not well received.

“That was just another one of those kicks in the pants that started the snowball of wondering, ‘Why do I do this for other people if this is how I’m going to be treated?’” says Cynthia.

The kicks kept coming.

When her youngest daughter started kindergarten, for Cynthia, a single mom, it meant leaving work at lunch to pick her up from daycare and take her to school. She then returned to work only to leave again a few hours later to pick her daughter up at school and take her back to daycare. Then back to work again.

Even though Cynthia skipped all of her lunch and fifteen-minute breaks to make these school and daycare runs, she was frowned upon at work for leaving, as well as for the need to take time off for doctor’s appointments and snow days.

Out of necessity, she did the bare minimum—no school trips, no outings, no events. “I was the mom who wasn’t there, ever,” says Cynthia.

To add to the stress, something seemed to be going on with her boss behind the scenes, and around this time he started to take it out on her.

“I really started to burn out,” says Cynthia.

She went to her doctor, who encouraged Cynthia to start taking care of herself better. But nothing changed. It couldn’t. She still had her job, and she still had her kids.

About three weeks later she went back to her doctor and was told to quit her job immediately. “She just said, ‘Nope, you can’t go back there, don’t even go back there today. You’re done,’” says Cynthia.

Over the next few weeks, Cynthia took the time off to try to deal with the pain and frustration that had built up. The reflection made her realize she didn’t need to go back to her old position or any position like it.

“I was only making myself sick and it started to trickle down to my kids,” says Cynthia.

She didn’t want to be a role model who was showing her daughters that having a good work ethic means killing yourself in the process.

Cynthia had been working in marketing for years, from planning and research, to learning about different industries and how they work in various parts of the world, to website design.

She knew her stuff, and had the skill and personality to start her own business.

She remembers thinking: “I don’t need that pay cheque every couple of weeks because I know that no matter what I choose, I’m going to make it work.”

Her next thought: “What am I even waiting for?”

KEENi Web Design & Consulting was born, and Cynthia became a role model for her daughters she could be proud of.

Cynthia admits she gets “super excited about stuff all the time.” And working with her current clients definitely excites her.  “It’s the energy,” says Cynthia, “the exchange of energy between me and the people I work with.”

The best part? Her clients get excited too.

Sometimes, especially for someone who has lost faith in their business or feels stuck in a rut or unsure where to go, talking to Cynthia, who is truly passionate about helping people feel renewed enthusiasm for their business, makes all the difference.

“They light up again,” says Cynthia. “It’s like that Christmas morning look … That’s my favourite part.”

Although the services listed on her website primarily focus on web design and consulting, Cynthia gives more holistic offerings to her client.

Sometimes that means rewriting or making suggestions regarding copy. Sometimes it means helping clients find the joy in their business, and other times it means guiding them toward those ‘aha’ moments of how to share their story in a way that resonates with their customers.

She doesn’t advertise each additional skill she offers, such as the ones above, branding, or developing icons.

“People aren’t always looking for all of those little pieces,” says Cynthia. “They’re just looking for someone to look after them and get their message out there.”

The rest, it seems, is a pretty sweet bonus.

As to the burn-out, running her own business doesn’t mean Cynthia necessarily works less, but now she controls her time, and works better.

“It’s okay to have a really good work ethic and work hard,” says Cynthia, “even to work hard for somebody else if that’s what you choose to do.” But she emphasizes there comes a time when that all needs to go to the back burner because you need to look after yourself and your family. Those are the people who will stick with you for the rest of your life.

And, of course, life isn’t always easy.

Cynthia feels her life is an exercise in constantly overcoming obstacles and finding creative ways to work around the struggles thrown at her.

“There was this one year where I moved to six different places,” says Cynthia. “I lived in six different homes … with my two kids.” Her youngest was one and a half.

It costs money to move and you have to change your address all the time. “There really wasn’t any time for making anyplace a home,” says Cynthia. “It was just a place to sleep.”

To give her kids a bit of stability and also to look after herself, she started hiking almost every day. Definitely every weekend.

She did other things too, to create stability, like a challenge with her children to eat well on a budget.

She didn’t have a coffee machine, so she sat in Starbucks regularly to give herself that rich coffee experience.

“Everything about that time was so up in the air that I really struggled to find the things that would ground me,” says Cynthia. As she was moving all the time, none of the things could be material because that would just be something else she’d need to move.

The experience changed a lot of things, says Cynthia. How active her and her daughters are, the way they spend their time, and their experience as a family.

“My kids don’t ask for material things anymore. They want to go for [image error]coffee or go for a hike,” says Cynthia. “They don’t ask for toys … they want stuff, sure, but they don’t care if they don’t get it.”

It was also a real shift in how she defines success. An unexpected result, but one she’s glad for. “It kind of sucked at the time,” says Cynthia, “but it worked out great.”

Now she looks at life more holistically as well.

During hard times she reminds herself: “this is the way the universe works. There are ups and there are downs, and when there are downs it’s probably because I need some rest or I need to take a step back.”

Rather than beat herself up over the the slow times, she tells herself, “Cynthia, you’re not a terrible businessperson, there’s a reason why there’s this slow period … you really need it to happen because you know you’re not going to take the time for yourself.”

She trusts that when she’s ready to start digging in again, the work will be there.

Her advice to those struggling to start or maintain their own business?

“Don’t waste your time trying to be perfect …. Nobody’s perfect. So if you’re waiting for that launch or that product, or the logo … it’s not worth the wait. Just get in, do it, and things will evolve with you.”

Need some full-service web and design consulting services in your life? Follow Cynthia on Facebook at KEENi Web Design & Consulting or visit her website. She’s launching a course soon that will be perfect for any entrepreneur who wants to jump start their online presence or learn how to map their client’s journey. So keep your eyes peeled for an announcement about her FAAB Website Planning E-course.

Have some thoughts about Cynthia’s journey or see parallels to your own? Scroll down to “Join the Conversation!”

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Following her ‘happy’ and never giving up

Health and wellness have always played a strong role in Megan Kennedy’s life. Her Dad had her on ice skates from two years old and skiing downhill at three. Her Mom always stressed the importance of eating good real food.

“People may use the excuse that healthy food costs too much money,” says Megan. But you can make it work. Although money was tight, her single mom raised three girls, always making sure they ate healthy to get the nutrients they needed to thrive.

“Your health is so important,” says Megan. “It affects how you feel on a day to day basis. Who doesn’t want to feel healthy, happy and vibrant?”

Continuing with that focus on health, her mother purchased The Healthy Vibe, a health and wellness store, when Megan was fifteen. “I have a clear memory in my head of her saying ‘if you want a part-time job, come on down to the store and we will learn together,’” says Megan. She ended up working at the store throughout high school and during her first year of university.

At that time, however, her dream was to pursue a career in acting.  Megan moved to Tokyo, where she worked as an actress until she was twenty-seven. She even worked as a Princess in Tokyo Disneyland!

She was in Japan during the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami. “It was a devastating traumatic time in Japan,” says Megan, “but I also felt that it made me really think about my life, what I wanted, and where I wanted to be.”

Feeling she’d accomplished what she set out to, Megan decided it was time to return home to Newfoundland and ‘find herself’. Moving home meant being closer to family. It also meant figuring out the next step, which was really hard.

But her life was meant to go in another direction.

With her strong passion for health and wellness, Meagan took a position as a weight loss coach but quickly decided that it wasn’t for her. She wanted to run her own business.

She and her mother were always close. “She has always had a lot of faith in my abilities,” says Megan. They decided that the Healthy Vibe’s industry was growing and that there was an obvious need for a Healthy Vibe St. John’s. “It all fell into place,” says Megan. She even met the love of her life, who is now her partner in life and in business, within a few months of returning home.

“Little did I know my destiny awaited me,” says Megan of her decision to return from Tokyo. And little did she know her acting training would play such a key role in giving her the confidence to run her own business and put herself ‘out there’ in order to make that business successful.

“When you feel like your life is crumbling to pieces (literally),” says Megan. “It might just actually be the beginning of amazing things to come.”

Running her own business means she can create flexibility in her life. She recently had a beautiful baby boy, so currently she does most of her work from home.

But whether she’s at the store or working from home, her process for keeping the business running is the same. “The number one thing I have to do is make my to-do list,” says Megan. “If not I end up into a million different things and feel like I accomplished nothing.”

Setting time limits and making sure she takes care of herself while she works are also important. She recommends starting with a good breakfast as it sets your day up for success.

“We spend so much of our lives working that a few small things can make a huge difference in how we feel at the end of the day,” says Megan.

She always sits down to work with a massive jug of water and a big cup of green tea. She also makes sure to take snack/meal breaks.

“You hear a lot of people saying that they are too busy,” says Megan, “but if you take a few minutes to take care of yourself your brain will be that much sharper, you will feel happier (not hangry), have more energy, and be way more productive. Plus you’re less likely to take a sick day!”

Running her own business also means she has a lot of control over customer experience.

“At the Healthy Vibe customer service has always been our number one priority,” says Megan. “We really take the time to get to know our customers so we can help guide them with the right health and wellness products that suit them and their lifestyle.”

Getting customer feedback on how certain products they are taking or using are really making a positive effect in their lives—how they are sleeping better, more energy, or feeling happier—is one of the most gratifying things about her work.

She also loves the variety. “I never go to work doing the same thing day after day,” says Megan. She loves to be challenged, to keep things moving, changing and growing. “Having this output for my creativity is really important.”

But it isn’t always easy.

When she first started, she had a lot to learn and made a lot of mistakes. Although she had some hard lessons, she now realizes if she’d started out where she is today, she may not have been able to handle it.

Growth doesn’t happen overnight. “My mom always says that my generation wants everything right away,” says Megan, and accepting that things take time and happen for a reason can be very hard. “Patience is a virtue: a lesson I am still learning,” she says with a laugh.

Megan has found it’s also not always easy separating business from her personal life. Her mom and husband are both in the business, which has its advantages and challenges. But they’re making it work, and have recently expanded the business to open up a third location in Conception Bay South.

Now that Megan’s a mother herself, she hopes to instill in her kids the same passion for health and wellness that her mother instilled in her. “It’s the best gift you can give,” she says. That, and the knowledge that life is short, so you should be doing something you love.

“There will be challenges in whatever you pursue, but do something that makes you happy and never give up,” says Megan. “Your thoughts create your world, so try and keep them happy.”

If you want to learn more about Megan and The Healthy Vibe, you can check out their website and online store or get in touch with Megan through email, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Have any thoughts on Megan’s story? Scroll down to where you see “Join the conversation!” and leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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Telling stories, pushing past the pain

It’s not unusual for developmental editor Kris Windley to watch her clients cry. It’s not that she’s mean or a bully, rather, she’s determined to help people discover their voice, even it means pushing through pain points and often ends in tears.

Good tears, though.

“Writing is hard,” says Kris. “It’s hard for every single person, even if you’re great at it. Even if you love it.”

Kris strives to help her clients love it. She usually works with female creatives—women who have a drive to help and a drive to put something fabulous into the world.

A lot of these women battle with imposter syndrome or simply don’t feel their voice is one people want to hear. “I spend a lot of time doing the tough-love kind of thing,” says Kris. Many of her clients have been telling themselves they need to be quiet, thinking their “secret quiet little message” isn’t acceptable or worth sharing

Kris tells them to speak up.

She pushes and prods and helps them find a way to overcome those feelings. “I want them to feel like what they’re doing every day matters,” says Kris, “and is big and is important and changes something for someone.” Because it is, and it does.

One of the ways she pushes is getting people to focus on their ‘why’s.’ Why are they living the life they’re living? Why are they pursuing this business? Why do they feel compelled to create or do the thing that they do? That’s often when the tears happen – when clients get to the core of why they started.

It’s an emotional and cathartic process, says Kris. “I know that when we find the problem … the thing that hurts, it’s the best part” because the next step is how to make it better. “But they don’t know that in that moment,” says Kris. “They only know that they’re crying in front of someone that they don’t really know that well.”

Figuring it out the problem, however, is worth it. Through the process, Kris says clients narrow in on their authentic voice. They get clear on their message in a way that is genuine.

The path to this creative mix of developmental editing and teaching, with what sounds like a little bit of counselling thrown in, wasn’t a direct one.

Although she always wanted to be a writer and tell stories, not believing she could make a living at it, Kris went to university to become a high school teacher. It seemed like the safe choice. After a few years in the teaching field, where jobs were scarce, she realized it wasn’t so safe after all.

Her next venture was to work full time at a private school for students with learning disabilities. She recalls working with a group of women in their twenties and thirties who were recently diagnosed.

The women had just learned that all of the struggles that they’d had in school growing up were because of a learning disability. “It wasn’t their fault, and they weren’t lazy or stupid,” says Kris. “They weren’t all of those things they thought they were.”

“So many people feel like their stories don’t matter,” says Kris. “I get table-flipping mad when someone is made to feel their voice isn’t important.” And so, helping people who feel they don’t have a voice or can’t find one realize they’ve always had it, became her passion.

It was a passion she threw herself into. But with the hours that required, adding onto the hours she’d been keeping for the previous decade—through university, teaching, and suddenly becoming a single mother to two young children—it was just too much.

“I was running a really hot engine for twelve years, and then it seized, and it broke.” She got extremely sick, over and over again. The doctor told her that her immune system was shot and she was going to have to sleep for about a year.

Shortly before this burn-out, Kris was told her then thirteen-year-old daughter, who has cerebral palsy, was too old to be in daycare anymore, which meant Kris needed to figure out a way to be home to take care of her. The doctor took care of that. The first step of it, anyway.

Resigned to an enforced exile during which she had to hide under the blankets and freak out for a while, Kris started her business out of necessity.

She realized that being a writer was a legitimate job that worked for her particular needs. “You could be in your jammies and you could hide in your house when you need to, and still [write],” says Kris.

She started as a copywriter, and during what she now calls her ‘pyjama year’ started slowly building her business and taking on clients.

But something just wasn’t right.

She didn’t like the robot style of copywriting. She wanted to tell stories and help others tell stories as well.

A serendipitous run-in with a former student reminded her how much she loved teaching and sparked the realization that she could take all she’d learned about the structures for marketing writing that work best and mash them together with her passion for teaching.

She now works between the role of teacher and marketer, melding those two loves. “I do something very different,” says Kris. “Letting people know they’re not only allowed to tell their stories, but those are the stories that need to be told.”

Having the ability to work in your pyjamas (this writer knows what it’s like, I’m in my PJs right now) means you have to be your own boss sometimes, says Kris.

The start of her burn out was somewhat beyond her control. “All of the freaky crazy stuff lined up at once,” says Kris. Over one summer she had an infant at home, learned of her three-year-old daughter’s diagnosis of cerebral palsy, and was busy learning sign language to communicate with her. In addition, largely, she thinks, because they married so young and weren’t equipped to deal with the challenges of raising a child with cerebral palsy, her relationship with her husband was falling apart, all while she was prepping to enter university as a mature student.

“We were packing up and choosing who had which water pitcher,” says Kris. Her husband moved out and two days later she started university with a baby and a three-year-old with a significant disability. She had to be supermom, super-student, and after graduation, super-career-woman too.

“It was tremendously difficult but really, really wonderful at the same time,” says Kris. “When life gets insane like that and everything changes you are infused with adrenaline and you just tear it up, and I did, which was great and exciting, but you can’t do that for a long time without doing some sort of damage.”

Kris never wants to get to that point of running the engine too hot for too long again.

So, now that she’s had her year of recovery, to avoid further damage Kris’ method of being her own boss is to focus on routine. “I have to be really careful about how I treat myself. Because that’s who I am, I’m a person who runs a hot engine,” says Kris.

She’s careful to take breaks when she needs them, but also not to let herself sink too far in the other direction. “It’s this weird in between thing where you don’t want to do anything and you want to do every single thing” says Kris.

Focusing on routine keeps her from doing too much or doing nothing at all.

She’s still more likely to do too much. Like many creatives, when Kris gets an idea she wants to tear into it. She loves to dream, loves to see a problem, have that lightbulb moment of how to fix it, or lead her clients to lightbulb moments of their own.

“I love that I can be completely myself in what I do,” says Kris. There’s nobody to answer to but herself, and from the sounds of it, she’s a pretty sweet boss.

Have a story you’ve been struggling to tell or a brand message you want to ensure is uniquely yours? Check out With A K Writing Services. Kris will help you learn to trust your voice, design your process, and share your message. If you want to jump in with something tactile right away and get a sample of Kris’ style while learning Four Ways You Can Change The World, check out her recent post and get a free Change the World poster.

Have any thoughts on Kris’ story? Scroll down to where you see “Join the conversation!” and leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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Video Book Chat: The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

Video Book Chat: The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

Check out The Notebook

Author’s Website: nicholassparks.com

(You should seriously check out the author’s page. It has a story for the inspiration of The Notebook that, though only a few paragraphs long, has me wiping tears right now.)

A beautiful tale of human connection and the resiliency of love. At times touching, at others momentous.

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Exploring and expressing love of beauty and the beauty of love

Right out of university, Dominique Hurley landed a government, nine to five job as a visual art representative and cultural programmer. It was her dream job. After a few years, however, she realized the dream job wasn’t so dreamy.

She felt stuck and found herself mired in the Sunday night crying syndrome of not wanting to go back to work.

This job had been her goal and seemed like the perfect fit. Coming from a military family, not only had she been very well trained in the use of the left brain, it was a naturally strong part of her. At ten years old, her greatest fun was organizing thousands of stamps into categories and albums. She loved that stuff.

Next, she moved onto organizing events for people. At fifteen she became a day camp counsellor, and by seventeen was hired as a coordinator for her city’s after-school programs.

She was pushed fast professionally because of the strength of her left brain and, realizing how valuable that was, for years put most of her emphasis on that side of her personality.

“I was a hyper-organizer,” says Dominique, “It’s what I was known for.” But she became so goal-oriented, she forgot to enjoy the journey. That’s still something she’s learning: that it’s all about the journey. “We’ve made the left-brain the leader, but it should be the other way around,” says Dominique. “For a few years, my left and right brain were at war.”

She needed to relearn to embrace the mystery, but it didn’t come easy, reclaiming the intuitive side of her.

Her art helped bridge the gap.

“The more unhappy I was, the more I needed to paint,” says Dominique “The studio was my sanctuary and my classroom.”

She was still intuitive throughout these years, but more on an unconscious level.

“Science has proven your heart knows what’s going on twenty seconds before your mind or your eyes can see it,” says Dominique. “We were born intuitive, and our heart developed way faster and earlier than the brain, but we’ve forgotten how to use that.”

She reflects on an early example of her intuition helping her make a life-defining decision. As the child of a military family, Dominique moved a lot and when she was ten-years-old, her family returned to the town she’d lived in when she was five.

Back with the same peer group she’d known half her lifetime earlier, she didn’t seem to fit. She was bullied for doing her homework, for being different, because the guys thought she was cute, and felt pressure to be someone she wasn’t to make it stop.

“At that moment, I remember consciously having to choose, do I make myself into someone else that I don’t like and that’s not me, or do I stand up for who I am and get bullied until I can leave and get myself to a different high school.”

She had a decision to make, and she chose to stay true to herself. It was a hard choice, but she credits that decision with forming her desire to help people connect to their true selves. Often, says Dominique, people have forgotten their true selves because they were gradually and continuously shaped by society, by expectations, by outside pressure.

And so, years later and stuck in a job that was making her unhappy, Dominique realized she needed to get back to a place of consciously using her intuition.

She let go of the ten-year plans and started going with the flow (to a certain extent) and following where she felt guided.

“For someone like me who’s not a natural risk taker it was such a stretch of my comfort zone,” says Dominique. But the more she took little steps, the more she learned to trust her intuition enough to take huge leaps of faith.

She quit her safe government job to teach ESL in the Czech Republic, then returned to Ottawa to study, then back to the Czech Republic, and onto South Korea. She’s now lived, worked and studied in five Canadian provinces and three continents.

“Things just evolved,” says Dominique. Her life’s not a straight line, but a serpentine mish-mash of going from education to photography to art and back again.

“It looks a little disjointed and yet right now … it’s like all of the pieces of the puzzle are coming together,” says Dominique.

Those puzzle pieces are a joining of her love of art and her passion for living consciously, intuitively and helping others do the same.

“I feel like I’m just starting out … I may be fifty years old but it’s just another part of the journey.”

Back in the 90s, when Dominique’s unhappiness with work sent her to her studio more and more, she didn’t even consider being a full-time artist. It wasn’t until 2011 that she moved to Newfoundland with that intention.

All of these years later, the studio is still her sanctuary.

“When I’m in the studio, it’s like I’m going into church, for myself or for someone else,” says Dominique. “The art is a portal to the universal energy flow.” She’s had people walk into the room and all of a sudden break down in tears, experiencing this huge release. She smiles, “It’s beautiful to witness.”

The expansion from a primarily art based business to one that now also offers intuitive services came slowly, and she credits part of it to the self-discovery and lessons learned during her ten-year marriage.

“It was a beautiful but sometimes intensely challenging journey due to my husband’s health crisis,” says Dominique. “Through both our self-discovery process during this time, we came to realize that the most loving thing to do to be true to our Selves and to the other was to go our separate ways.”

During the three most difficult years, Dominique had to pull on every resource she could to take care of herself and her husband, which helped her get back into her own spirituality, reminded her to let go of what others thought, and taught her to not sweat the small stuff.

She doesn’t see her divorce as a failure. “We parted with more love than we got together with,” says Dominique, and “what I see out of [those challenges] now is the beauty and the gift.” She admits hardship can feel different when you’re in the middle of it, but her new philosophy is that challenges happen for us not to us.

Dominique has only been offering her intuitive services since 2014 but for decades she was a spiritual workshop junkie. She loved participating in them so much that eventually she started to lead, and then realized she wanted to do more of it.

“I went through huge fear when I was guided to start talking about my visionary gifts and offering them to help people connect to their Truth because I’ve been bullied for this kind of stuff in my life,” says Dominique. “And you learn to shut up about this stuff, [about] having visions … It’s not something society encourages.”

But it is a lot more accepted now than when she was a child or when she first started her art. It’s evolved.

And, likewise, offering intuitive services is such a natural evolution of everything she is and everything she’s always done that it was just about realizing what her unique brand and blend of skills was and how they could work together.

Through services such as Soul Energy Portraits, Discovery Journey Meditation, and Divine Storytelling intuitive reading packages, Dominique teaches people how to access their intuition. She’s also the creator of the Intuition into Action Treasure Map: 5 Steps to Activate Your Intuition for a Happy Healthy Life.

She may channel symbols but leaves it up to clients to interpret themselves. “We’re the best one to interpret the symbolism that comes to us,” says Dominique. “Sometimes you think something is just a coincidence, but it isn’t, it’s the universe talking to you.”

There’s no real label to what she’s doing. She’s an intuitive artist, a certified naturopath, a lightworker, and master educator. Basically, she helps people connect to their true self and live in alignment with their soul, something she’s been consciously learning to do for the past thirty years.

“It’s a beautiful dance,” says Dominique, “figuring it all out.”

Could you use some soul energy healing, interested in learning more about what intuitive services are, or could you use some beautiful, energy-infused art in your life? Visit Dominique Hurley Intuitive Art and Inspiration or check out Dominique on Facebook to learn more.

Did something speak to you about Dominique’s story? Scroll down to where you see “Join the conversation!” and leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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Know a woman whose story in life and/or business you think should be featured on Real Women?  Is that woman you? Send me a message.

A lifetime of helping, one cup at a time

Helping people see their potential is Cheryl Barrett’s greatest joy. So much so, that when she sits down to reflect on her life and why she’s here on earth, one main answer comes to mind: to help. “Somehow, in some shape or form, to help everybody around me,” says Cheryl. “That’s my purpose.”

For twenty-two years she fulfilled that purpose through working as an early childhood educator. Those first few years, says Cheryl, are key to a person’s development and  “by George, I wanted to make sure they fulfilled their potential.”

Strength is another trait that defines Cheryl’s life, and the challenges she’s lived through may play a large role in why she has such a strong desire to help others.

At twenty-one, when Cheryl was five months pregnant, the father of her unborn child walked out of her life, leaving Cheryl alone through her pregnancy. Her daughter was born with down syndrome and when her father came to see her he asked Cheryl if she’d be willing to put their daughter up for adoption. In that moment, Cheryl decided she wanted nothing to do with him. He moved away, and Cheryl began a new phase of her life.

“Support is important,” says Cheryl. “You need your family and your friends. It’s important, too, to educate yourself.” With down syndrome came a life of learning lessons and keeping up to date on information that was coming out by health practitioners.

Cheryl’s goal was to be involved with all of her daughter’s treatment while treating her just like anyone else.  She didn’t want her daughter’s disability to be the focus, but rather wanted people to see that down syndrome is not a crutch. “She has abilities,” says Cheryl, “just like everybody.” A large focus of Cheryl’s life became helping her daughter navigate life, always encouraging her to realize her potential.

“It doesn’t matter if you have challenges, a disability, you are capable,” says Cheryl, while stressing that life has taught her the art of overcoming obstacles and challenges. “All these little life curveballs that were thrown at me, I got through them. There was a lesson that came out of every one of them.”

Learning these lessons doesn’t happen overnight, says Cheryl, and they won’t come easy if you’re on your own. Because of this, she keeps herself surrounded by people who are uplifting and positive. They help her get through the rough days. But, says Cheryl, she’s learned “no matter how bad things are, they’ll get better.”

Cheryl’s own positivity and desire to help others serves her well as a consultant with Steeped Tea. She’s a Senior Group Leader in the company and has a team of fifty-eight people. In addition to sharing a product she loves, every day she’s helping her team see their potential.

Cheryl’s path to working as a Steeped Tea consultant wasn’t a direct one.

In 2008, after having her second daughter, Cheryl realized paying the outrageous cost of infant care just so she could work taking care of other people’s kids didn’t make sense. So, she quit her job to start an in-home business as an early childhood licensed practitioner. She did that until her youngest was in kindergarten, at which point she felt too housebound and in need of more social stimulation.

“My life needed more flexibility,” says Cheryl. “I was not having enough time to function as a wife and keep up with the daily routines of my children, who are busier than I am.”

Rather than go back to being an early childhood educator, she decided it was time for a change. She worked in direct sales with a jewelry company for three years. Around the time they folded, a friend sent Cheryl a sample of Steeped Tea’s Lemolicious fruit tea.

Due to her mother’s health problems, Cheryl had started focusing more on healthy eating and was hooked on the idea that she loved the tea, without any sugar. She signed up and has been working full time as a consultant ever since.

In the beginning, time management was the hardest challenge. Cheryl couldn’t say no and was available for her team 24/7, but, she says, you have to balance your day. Part of being a leader is getting your team to see their own potential and not burning yourself out.

Becoming a leader is what working in direct sales did for her.

It’s not anything she ever thought she would do, let alone be good at. “Someone saw in me the potential I didn’t see,” says Cheryl. “I didn’t have confidence in myself. Getting up in front of people to speak would put butterflies in my stomach.”

Now, she gets excited when she’s in someone’s home, talking to people about the types of tea, even if they’re strangers. She’s spoken in front of hundreds at a conference, telling others her story. “The biggest thing I’ve gotten from this whole experience is confidence,” says Cheryl. “It’s helped me become a better person, take on new challenges, and get out of my comfort zone.”

She loves that she gets to help others step out of their comfort zones too, while finding a flexible way to support themselves. Whether someone is a mother homeschooling her three children or a college student needing extra income, working with Steeped Tea is an option that can help people meet their goals.

“You get out of your business what you invest into your business,” says Cheryl. Consultants need to manage their time wisely and learn tools, but the company has a great support network. Cheryl’s seen first-hand that it’s possible to reach financial goals or have that dream vacation. “You can earn it by running your business successfully.”

Although Cheryl has enjoyed these types of rewards, the personal reward and satisfaction of helping the members of her team achieve their goals is even better.

She also really just loves the tea. It’s a healthier option compared to the sodas and juice people may have been drinking before, and it helped Cheryl walk away from sugar.

When she’s not introducing people to their new favourite cup of tea, volunteering with the Newfoundland and Labrador Down Syndrome Society, or spending time with her family, Cheryl keeps her joy by taking time for herself—scrapbooking, painting, yoga, eating healthier. “I find it calming and relaxing,” says Cheryl, “it helps me stay focused.”

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Love a good cuppa? … tea that is. Visit Cheryl’s Steeped Tea page and check out the catalogue to find something you’d love or, if you’re in the St. John’s, NL area, contact Cheryl about hosting your very own tea party for you and your friends to try a bunch of free samples. You can also find Cheryl on Facebook.

Have any thoughts on Cheryl story? Scroll down to where you see “Join the conversation!” and leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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Know a woman whose story in life and/or business you think should be featured on Real Women?  Is that woman you? Send me a message.

Being present in the kitchen and in life

Tunes blasting. Flavours mingling.
A place to think. A place to relax. A place to get lost.

Jennifer Wellsman’s kitchen is her happy place. She loves to cook, and the hours she spends in her kitchen may be solitary, but she never feels alone. “I have conversations with me, myself, and I,” says Jennifer, “just the three of us.”

A decade ago, Jennifer never would have guessed this was how she’d spend her days.

Her father always told her, no matter what you do in life, make sure you enjoy it because you’re going to be doing it a long time. Jennifer started out in advertising but knew it wasn’t her ‘long time’ job.

She dreamed of running her own business, spending time with the kids she planned to have, while also make a living. The problem was, she didn’t know what she wanted that flexible, profitable, ‘long time’ job to be.

In stepped fate.

While on maternity leave with her first child, Jennifer was out with a friend who commented that she wished she had a personal chef—someone to cook her meals so she didn’t have to. Jennifer’s first thought was, I could do that, and a seed was planted.

Although Jennifer had never cooked professionally, at an early age she cooked meals for her family to have ready when her mom came home from work. Jennifer liked to cook, liked being able to help out her mom, and didn’t see why her mother was so thankful, as if cooking a meal was a big deal.

Years later, she understands what it feels like to come home from a full day at work, wanting to cook yourself and/or your family a healthy meal, but just not having the energy. Having a meal ready, or one you can simply pop in the oven, is certainly a big deal.

Three years after the personal chef seed was planted, while on maternity leave with her second child, the idea was still pulling at her. She took a personal chef course in Toronto, and when her mat leave was up, dived in.

That was almost five years ago.

Since then, Jennifer says Thyme to Dine, her personal chef company, has been going strength to strength. Her focus is meeting individual customer needs to ensure she’s helping people in the best way she can, by making their lives easier.

She’s of the mind that when you’re paying for something, it better be worth paying for, which is why she takes the time to learn what her clients like and make it as flavourful as possible. All her meals are custom made.

“If [clients] don’t want salt,” says Jennifer, “they don’t have to have salt. If they don’t like mushrooms, they don’t have mushrooms. If they don’t like onion and garlic, not a problem.”

Is it a challenge? “Absolutely,” continues Jennifer, “but that’s okay because I know that’s what they need and they can’t find it anywhere else.”

Whether her clients are busy families, senior citizens, professional couples, or individuals, she knows she’s giving them something they can’t or don’t have time to give themselves, healthy home-cooked meals.

Her success, however, hasn’t come without its challenges.

As a one-woman show, it’s often hard to separate life from the business. It all feels interconnected.

For example, the business had been going really well, then in the past year she lost a company contract that was a large part of her income. It was a mutual decision, says Jennifer, they were growing bigger than she wanted to grow in order to meet their needs. Mutual or not, it was an eye-opener.

She needed to up her marketing to find new clients within a changing economy.

Which led her to her next big dream, opening her own public kitchen. She had a place picked out, but then started thinking. One of the main reasons she wanted to run her own business was to have more time with her kids “and do things a lot of women can’t do because they’re tied to a job that’s nine to five.”

“They’re five and eight,” says Jennifer, “and I want to be able to do things with them while they’re this age.” Field trips, skating lessons, afternoons outside. With her business the way it is today, she can arrange her schedule to make those things possible. “If I had a kitchen,” says Jennifer, “I wouldn’t be able to do that.”

Cue some serious soul-searching.

Although Jennifer believes in business you have to take leaps to succeed, she ultimately decided this wasn’t a leap she was ready to take. It was a hard choice and required reworking the way she’d been living her life.

Instead of viewing lulls in business as a sign she needed to work harder and spend countless hours trying to ‘get busy’ again, she now strives to see lulls as a time to enjoy her family.

Although she thought she’d already been doing that, she realized she wasn’t. “I was putting the business first. And when I made the decision [not to open the kitchen] there was this huge relief. Almost like an a-ha moment. I had peace inside me.”

Today, not being busy means she can go snowshoeing with her kids after school, or play with her son without having her laptop open and in arms reach.

This, of course, is sometimes easier said than done. It’s hard not to worry about money, says Jennifer, but “constantly thinking about money can be a blocker.” Her motto is: “Think positive, trust it will all work out, but consistently look for new opportunities.”

In businesses like hers, says Jennifer, you never know what the month is going to bring, but you need to be confident and positive. “If it’s a good business,” which she trusts hers is, “you’re going to get the clients you need, and it will all work out. If you can’t do that, you might as well give up.”

She’s not giving up anytime soon.

“Hang on through the hard times to get to those good times,” says Jennifer. And don’t let social media steal your joy.

“Social media is all about the good things that are happening,” she says. People don’t talk about the bad things. We don’t know what’s happening on the other side, and sometimes we can get so caught up in other people, their successes and what they’re doing with their business, that we forget to concentrate on ourselves, our families, and trust that our triumphs will happen when they happen.

“You’ve got to live your own reality,” says Jennifer, not get caught up in the Facebook reality.

Jennifer’s reality?

Following the wisdom of her father. Sometimes, she says “when the days are hard, I think maybe I should go back to a nine to five job,” but then she remembers she’s doing what she loves AND has time for her family. “ So I have to figure out how to make [it] work.” And that’s just what she does.

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Live in St. John’s, NL or the surrounding area and could use some healthy, custom made meals so you can relax after the 9-5? Know someone who’s stressed out or super busy this month? Prepared meals make an amazing gift. Check out Jennifer’s services at Thyme to Dine or follow her on Facebook.

Can you relate to the all too real struggle of answering that “What’s for dinner?” question? See some parallels to your own life – it’s so hard to remain present in this digital world, isn’t it?

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