Episode 2: From Communications and media graduate to lifestyle and wellness coach, a conversation with Claudia Amy Salador!

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Welcome to the Career Chronicles Podcast, hosted by me, Emma Nayla.

Each week we'll be interviewing people from.

All walks of life and uncovering the challenges, successes and insights that come from.

Forging your own path.

Whether you're looking for inspiration to pursue your own unconventional career or simply curious about the stories of those who have done so, this podcast is for you. So join us as we explore the world of unconventional careers and the amazing people who have turned them into a reality. Sit back, relax, and let's dive into these incredible stories together. Welcome to this week's episode of the Career Chronicles Podcast. Our guest this week is Claudia Amy Salador, a qualified holistic lifestyle and wellness coach as well as personal trainer. Claudia graduated from the University of leeds back in 2017 with an incredible degree in communications and media, which quickly led her into an office job in London. However, after a brief stint at a PR grad scheme, she quickly realized that this chosen path wasn't exactly for her. With a growing passion for fitness and health, Claudia decided to take the plunge and pursue a qualification in the field of personal training as a side hustle. Fast forward five years. Claudia now runs her own little studio in Essex and an online coaching app. She is a living example of doing what you love. Every day is the key to happiness and fulfillment. Despite taking a more than unconventional route, Claudia couldn't be prouder and happier of where she is today. In this episode, Claudia will be sharing her inspiring journey, talking about the benefits of holistic wellness and offer practical tips on how to make your business grow. So, without further ado, let's welcome Claudia to the show.

Hi Claudia. Welcome to the Career Chronicles podcast.

Thank you for having me. I'm very excited.

I'm so excited to have you here. I've read so much about your journey. Obviously, we've been following each other on Instagram for a while, so really looking forward to jumping into this recording. First of all, we'd love for you to share a little bit more about you so our listeners can learn a little bit more about yourself and your journey and what you've been doing.

Yes. So I don't really know where to start or start at the beginning. So I always feel like I'm in the Sound of Music when I say that.

I love that.

Yeah. So I am nearly 28. 28 in like two weeks. And I am a holistic lifestyle and wellness coach. I've been doing this for about five years now. After kind of being a bit unsure when I left university and what I was kind of meant to be doing with life. But it kind of turned out that I followed my passion into fitness and wellness and it's kind of just spiraled from there. I focus more on lifestyle, mindset, wellness, a kind of a holistic full body approach to health and fitness which really helps my clients transform their lives kind of from the inside out. So mind, body, soul, vibes, I absolutely love that.

And I think you've hit the nail on the head straight away with the mind, body and soul. So you left university, you said, I understand you went to Leeds, you studied communications and media, ended up in an office job in London which as you said before this conversation that you realized it wasn't for you. What was it about going into an office job that you very quickly realized wasn't the right path for you?

Do you know what? Before I had the office job, I was set on having the office job and it just proves that you just don't know where life's going to take you, how you're going to feel when it comes to certain situations. I really did think that that office job, that pr, media communications vibe in a London, central London office was going to be for me and I'd work my way up and we probably wouldn't be having this conversation but I just felt kind of not isolated but like at the bottom of a very big food chain. And that was fine. I was happy to work my way up but I just didn't feel like my impact was enough. I felt like the monotony, the routine of the, the waking up at whatever time and seeing the same people on the, on the Central Line every day. And I, I got quite train sick so I got travel sick and every evening when I'd walk up, back from the station I just feel so, so ill. I'd have to get off sometimes or on my way home at different stops because I felt so sick. It was like peak summer when I just started and it was sweating hot on the Central Line and I just thought this, this can't be from. I literally only just graduated I think like four weeks before. So I hadn't had a summer like the last hurrah after university and I was like this can't be now. It surely, surely there's more to life than getting on and off the Central Line, feeling sick and kind of. I had my emails checked by this PR company, like I couldn't do anything without it being checked. It just felt like, kind of like I was back at, back at school and that wasn't, wasn't for me, which I know And I was shocked because I thought it was going to be for me.

It's a really interesting one because I think that we, again, I had the exact same experience and so many of my clients that I speak to have either had that experience or currently living that reality and experience where we put these companies, these jobs and sort of climbing the corporate ladder on a pedestal. We think, oh wow, we get this recognition, it's so great. I'm going to reach the top of this food chain. And actually for some people, you know, I'm not saying for everyone, but for some people it absolutely works. They love that. I have so many friends who have started as summer interns either at banks or in law firms or at communication agencies, have worked their way up or in director positions. Absolutely loving it. Eight years later, couldn't think of anything better to do. And then we sort of have the other chunk of people who either tried it for a few months, a few years, sort of had a career in a specific industry and then have realized actually this is not what's going to make me happy. But in some respect it's sad because I see so many people who get stuck in that reality of, oh, well, I've been here eight years now, I'm late, I'm 30 something, I can't start a career again. And that is not, that's not true.

That's what I felt as well. I, I kind of, as I was more getting into it and I, and I could see the people on the tube and I felt like I was quite intuitive into looking at people and being like, they just look sad, they look like they don't want to be going to work. Or you'd hear your friends be like, oh, I really can't be bothered to go to work on Monday. And that was the worst thing. You know when your friends and family be like, oh, it's Monday tomorrow, you see them on the Sunday and they're like, oh my God. And the thought of that, I kind of had this, I suppose, well, it wasn't a midlife crisis, but maybe like a 22, 23 year old crisis.

Life crisis.

Yeah, exactly. A quarter life crisis. And I was like, surely this can't be it. But what I do have to say is I feel like everyone is totally different. And it's amazing that that career path works for some people. And the fact that it doesn't work for others is also amazing because it kind of showed me that how different we all are. And that's kind of led on into how I have to look at people now in my job at the minute. So I found that that was quite humbling to see how different we are, how the likes, the dislikes and kind of adulting, if you know what I mean.

Absolutely. And it is a very interesting, it's a very interesting view because exactly as you said, we're all so different and we all have different ways of working, of motivating. And when you look at a lot of these businesses, especially huge, huge corporate businesses, they have a specific blueprint of how they want people to work. And I definitely do think this sort of changed during the pandemic. I definitely changed, you know, the way that companies were. But we're absolutely seeing companies wanting people to come back into the office five days a week, stick to their holiday days, not be flexible at all. And I think what the pandemic allowed people to see was, hey, actually maybe I do like working, you know, a four day week, maybe I do like working remotely. But for so many years we've been conditioned to think things have to be done. We have to, you know, get on the tube in the morning, go to the office, work at the office, go for drinks after work and live for the weekend and then just repeat, repeat, repeat until we retire. And exactly as you said just then, we are also different. So why are we all trying to live the same life in terms of our careers and just really have a one size fits all, when actually if you don't fit into that, you almost feel like a misfit and that you are the one who's not fitting into how society told us that we should live.

Totally. That's, and that's exactly how, how I felt. And you know what, obviously the pandemic was just the most horrific couple of years for everybody, but I think it did in terms of businesses and the way we work, highlight and show that parents can go to the dentist, take their children to the dentist and not take half a day off. They can work from home, still get stuff done, maybe some people more productively than if they were in the office. I'm glad that it kind of showed big corporate companies who maybe didn't have trust in their employees and didn't think that they were, that they could work from home or could have the flexibility that they can. And I think that that's, that's helped.

Yes. And I, and I remember, it's interesting when you said about going to the dentist because I remember when I was in one of the corporate businesses that I worked in and I had to take my cat to the vet. And it was just down the road from me and I was working in the city at the time and I was living in, in Fulham and I remember saying to my boss, hey listen, I need to take my cat to the vet. The appointment is at 12 o' clock and I'll need to pick him up at 4 o'. Clock. So he said to me, okay, come into the office after you drop him off, then go home to pick and, and then go home to pick him up. So basically traveling into the office at 1 o' clock and having to leave the office at 3 o' clock and just because they wanted that face time with me in the office and actually I now look back at that and I think if that was during the pandemic, there wouldn't have, you would have.

Had, and you would have had a whole working day from home. Now if you had to do that.

No problem, the whole working day, it wouldn't have to be me rushing around trying to get to the, trying to get to the vet and going back and moving forward. And I think that that's what's really interesting is, you know, the way that the world has changed and also the fact that there's been so many more opportunities that have been opened up. Obviously I know that you started your business five years ago, you know, way before the pandemic, but I think it's interesting now, post pandemic and you sort of put, we sort of discussed this before is people sort of started side hustles and have now kind of seen what, where they've sort of gone to. Did this sort of business that you're running alongside your full time job, your business and company, did that start as a side hustle or did you jump straight in or how did that sort of look in terms of your journey?

So I think at the time. So this was kind of like 20. This was at uni actually, I think so 2015, I kind of was at university and I got into the whole fitness thing. So this was no carbs before marbs. This was when young girls, 18, 19, 20, we were all spending our money on the, the teas and the pills and the. Yes.

We won't say Holland and Barrett, we won't say we've all had those teas that are just. We all know what they do.

We, we do. And I'll say that I've tried it, tried it all. We've done the. When I say we, me and my friends at university, the five to the Cambridge, whatever the diet is, whatever the quick fix, we've done it. And that was kind of when I first kind of got into fitness at university, then that kind of carried on. And when I was on that journey, I kind of had great esthetic and physical results. But what that journey did for me mentally with struggling with a loss of a family member at the time, stressful dissertation, being a perfectionist and, and trying to get a degree, it was all mental for me. And that kind of passion and love grew where by the end of 2017, just as I was actually starting the office job, I was like, do you know what? For the sake of a couple of grand I could spend that, get a qualification in something I'm genuinely passionate about. And if that leads me to being 40 years old and a mum of two kids and I can just be like, right, I'll just do this on the side. It's a qualification, it's another. What's the phrase? String. Another string to the bow. String to the bow. And I was like, you know what? It's not going to harm it. It's going to give me more knowledge, more understanding about a subject that I'm genuinely passionate about. So we'll see what happens. And then it kind of turned into something on the side whilst I was doing their office job.

Yes, absolutely. And I think that that's a really interesting one because so many people that I speak to or, you know, especially in this field of work, where people are looking for career changes and are looking to sort of, you know, figure out what their next steps are. A lot of people say that, well, what happens if I do this qualification or what happens if I enroll in this program and I don't do anything with it? And it's not until those words come out of their mouth where they go, well, actually, it doesn't really matter. It's more about, you know, extending our knowledge and growing our knowledge and learning a different skill set. And, you know, over the last few years, we've seen so many people pivot into different routes of work and, you know, exploring different opportunities, and some of them have worked out and some of them haven't. Some people have gone back to, you know, their previous roles or have stayed in their industries. But actually, I'm exactly the same as you. I never see that there's any harm in doing a program, a course, you know, educating yourself further and expanding that knowledge. There's never had with that at all.

No. And that's what life's about. It's about following things that you're interested in. Like 20 years ago, I wanted to be a dolphin trainer 15 years ago. I wanted to be. I don't even know what I wanted to be. But things change so much. And you won't regret anything that you learn, even if you don't do anything with it, because learning is good for growth.

Absolutely. And learning is the best thing that we can do. So it's great to hear that you kind of had that view of, let me try and let me see what happens.

Yeah, see what happens. What's the worst that can happen? I, I spend however much and I learn more for myself because I enjoy that kind of lifestyle and, and I wanted that understanding for myself. And if anything happens now in 20 years and 30 years, then so be it.

Absolutely. I love that and I think that's such a good mentality to have. So let's talk a little bit more about you starting your business. Obviously, this podcast is all about people who have had less than conventional careers. And I think you definitely sort of fall into that category, learning very quickly that an office 9 to 5 job wasn't going to be for you when you were starting your business. Talk me through how you started your business, the challenges that you faced and just really the sort of overall experience you had with going from, you know, employed to self employed in that time period.

Oh gosh, do you know what, like we were just talking before and I, and I still don't have it all together. I didn't, definitely didn't have it all together then, but I still don't have it together now. It's a constant. I feel like as a business owner, like, I'm sure you agree it's a constant learning process. Things change daily, weekly, yearly. And I think that's just something that goes with the territory. I think at the beginning I, I remember thinking and I feel like I was really emotional and my mum at the time, well, my mum is also self employed. She works for herself and now actually my dad as well. So there's, there's a few of us.

Wow.

But it's just that not knowing what the hell to start with, what the hell to do, you don't get taught this in school. I didn't go to business school. I didn't do any of that. It's like what the finances, the spreadsheets, the, the logos, the website, like all of the things that you can't, you don't even think about, you have to think about. And that's not even doing the job or finding the clients at the top of it. So I feel like that whole Starting process was just really overwhelming. I kind of didn't really know what was going on. I feel like I was kind of living in a bit of a, not a bubble, but maybe a bit of a bubble at the time because I just was head down, just trying to do whatever I could to just start this thing, just get it off the ground. And I feel like I definitely wouldn't have been able to do that if I didn't have self belief. And I feel like that's something that's, that's grown exponentially with me as an individual. Like no way when I was 18 would I ever anticipate that I was doing that like five years later. I just wasn't the most confident, self confident. But I think that, that when you don't have a choice but to get your head down and make something, make a living of yourself. Because I didn't have a job at the time and I was just like putting all eggs in this basket feel like that drive the determination, the belief outweighs the panic and the fear.

I love that. And I think it's so true that actually the self belief and the knowing is the most important thing. One of the things I see, and you probably see this a lot with your clients when they're starting their fitness journey, when they're starting their wellness journey, is I don't know where to start. And so exactly as you said, we're kind of copying this 5 to diet, the Atkins Diet, the don't eat this, eat more of this, eat upside down, don't eat whatever it is, whatever the trend is, it's really easy to follow that. And unfortunately, when that doesn't work time and time again, because, you know, all of us, well, I would say the majority of women that I know have tried every single diet, the quick fit, fixed diets, the shakes, the this, the teas we were talking about. And unfortunately what happens is we start losing that belief in ourselves because, well, I'm the problem, I'm the one that do this. And similarly, I have it with clients who have gone, well, I've changed jobs four times. I keep going to different, either law firms or different VC funds or different, you know, whatever it is that they're working in. And they're saying, well, am I the problem?

And actually we're never the problem, we never know. And it's really never the problem.

Absolutely. And it's really about taking that step back, as you said, and saying, okay, well what is it that I need to do? How much am I actually believing in myself? And why am I jumping from job to job or diet to diet? Because am I actually believing that I know how I can do this? Do I trust that I can lose this weight and I can feel good and I can feel healthy? Or am I doing it because society is telling me I should look a certain way? And actually if I do the five chew diet or the no carbs before marbs, that I'm going to look amazing on holiday, or if I climb up the corporate ladder, I then get all of this respect and it's the most incredible thing ever.

And it's a comparison culture as well. It's that if my for I know my friend down the road they change jobs and they're really successful now. My friend did this diet and they lost ten pounds in two weeks. And that's what comes back to the point that we said before. We're all so different. It's not a one size fits all. We can't, we can't be pigeonholed. Which is why I feel like I'm, I'm so grateful that I learned that quite quickly. And now I can really utilize that as a kind of usp, I suppose, with how I deal with my clients bespoke play. Because it's so necessary.

It is, it is so necessary. And exactly as you said, it's really around understanding what works for you and also having that, having that understanding that works for you. And second of all, really believing in ourselves. And it's not easy. You know, you're talking about 18 year old you and gosh, I think back at 18 year old me and I had absolutely no idea what I want to do and still, you know, you running your own business, running your own practice. However, that looks as we spoke about this before, before this podcast recording, it's constantly evolving and constantly changing and so many people want the end result. You know, a year into their business, two years into their business. And actually if you listen to a lot of other podcasts about business owners, about startup founders, many of them had failed businesses. Many of them had businesses that took 10 years to get off the ground. Many of them had to wait to the likes of the pandemic such as, you know, Zoom and Canva and all of these businesses that absolutely took off in the midst of the pandemic when so many other successful businesses started failing because of the circumstances that were happening. How do you sort of keep up with your business and the forever changes that are going on both inside of your business and outside of your business.

And staying on top of that do you know what? I feel like I. I'm such a perfectionist and I feel like I have got better slightly. And I think something that was holding me back was trying, like we said before, briefly trying to be perfect and all the time, but you don't have time to be perfect when things are moving at the speed that they're moving at in general life. Like, we didn't anticipate the pandemic happening. All of these new technologies and trends and. And social media platforms, like we don't have time. So I feel like just again, being kind to yourself, just being patient and having that belief that, as silly as it sounds, it's all going to be okay. That is the most important thing. You just can't put too much pressure on yourself, especially when all of what I've just said and more is happening around you. You kind of just have to step back and just catch your breath for a bit, which is. I still have to find myself doing that for a second because it is overwhelming, not only as a business owner, but it's overwhelming. I feel like life is overwhelming in general for everybody at the minute. So.

And absolutely, I think it's really easy to. Again, going back to this comparison culture going, well, everyone else around me looks like they're doing it all and has it all together. And even myself now having, you know, been on this personal development journey for many, many years before I even started my own, My own business is. It's so easy to compare the 1% we see. And I actually had an incident recently with, with one of the projects I was consulting on, and we had an issue with a candidate and, you know, there was a bit of drama with her. And a few people went on her social media and saw that she was kind of posting somewhere that she was doing something and whatever it was, and it sort of came across in a way that was very unprofessional. But actually, I think we really had to take a step back and go, how much of that is real and how much of that is a facade to show everything's great, to show everything's really happy. And it's very, very easy to hide behind that screen and think that everyone's business is doing well, everyone else has 100 clients and you're struggling just to secure one client. And, you know, it's very, very easy to talk ourselves down around why we shouldn't be doing that, how everyone else is successful around us, and yet we're really struggling. And I remember even before I had my first client, I thought how on earth am I going to get my first client? How on earth am I going to do this? And it comes in peaks and troughs. You have busier times, you know, when you're busy with clients. A lot of the lead generation of emails and networking that all falls out and then your clients finish and then you haven't really got that many coming in and it's very, very up and down but it's really easy to go, well, I haven't got any clients coming in, I don't know what I'm doing, I need to quit this. Rather than being able to ride with the waves and going, actually, yes, things are a little bit more quiet. Where else can I generate money from? Where else can I add value to future potential clients? And how do I do that? But exactly as you said, it's this comparison culture of everyone else has got 100 clients, I have none. So therefore I'm a failure and I should stop doing.

Yeah. And I'll be totally real. And there are days where I feel like that, like there are days when I'm sure. And I think it's important to be honest because sometimes it, we were just saying like we, we've had quite busy months and we've been away and it looks lovely on, on social media and whatever but sometimes it's like this week has been tough getting back into the swing of it. You've been jet lagged and you're getting married in a couple of months and, and I'm finding my feet after not being here for a couple of weeks and I think, for God's sake, I've just let it all slip by the way was or looked, I'm sure like I was having a great time but deep down I'm like, oh my God, like an escape, escape. How am I going to get back into it? Like it's true, we do compare. And you kind of don't really know how someone's feeling on the inside, do you? Unless, unless you hear them say it or, you know for certain.

Absolutely. And I think that we do really, you know, especially in the coaching industry. I believe that there is a lot of, there's a lot of smoke and mirrors in this industry. Yeah. Whether it's career coaching, whether it's life coaching, whether it's fitness coaching, business coaching, whatever it is, there is a lot of smoke and mirrors and people are very good at conditioning things to look a certain way and, and that's not reality. And I do believe there are lots of incredible coaches out there who are making Huge impact. But unfortunately there are also a lot of coaches out there who are, you know, pretending to live a life that they don't actually live, pretending to work a four hour week or whatever crap is trendy that month. And actually we know that they're burning out working 15 hour days just to prove that they can work sort of those four hour days. And I think that's really, really harmful. And actually the fact that you shared the reality of yes, you're right, I'm jet lagged, I'm about to get married, I've got a wedding that I'm still planning, work is busy. The same with you, you've been away. And I do believe that that's so much more relatable, especially people who are starting out on that journey and are comparing their day one to someone's day. A thousand in their business, look where they are. And actually behind closed doors a lot of these people who are successful on day a thousand have been hustling and working and getting doors closed in their face day after day, year after year for the last few years. And now they're finally getting their breakthrough. But unfortunately we join them on their journey when they're having, when they're on the up rather than when they've been struggling or things have been difficult.

I totally, totally agree with you and I just feel like I the my biggest lesson in all of that because I can just relate to it all is just to embrace me authentically. And I didn't actually used to post on social media. I used to be so, so scared up until maybe like a year or two ago posting on social media like my actual working account because I was scared of all of this ones. If I demonstrated an exercise and it could be ridiculed or if I was doing it wrong and or a recipe that I posted wasn't, it was just too much pressure. But I feel like the most authentic you can be in whatever position you, you are in the, regarding coaching corporate clients or wellness or life coaching, whatever it is, fitness, just be 100% yourself.

Absolutely.

And I think there's no, there's no two sides of it, no smoke and mirrors essentially like you said.

I think that's such a big piece of advice as well is really being able to be authentic and be able to be you. Especially in a whole world where there are just copy and paste of every single, not just in the coaching industry, but every single industry, there are just sort of copy and paste of all of these sort of ways of working and you have to find your Your sort of way of working. And that sort of leads on to my next question is, you know, we spoke about things being bespoke and we spoke about people finding their own way of working. And as we said before, a lot of people don't start because they don't know where to start or how to start. If you could go back to yourself before you started your business, what would you, first of all, what would be the advice that you would give to yourself to start that business? And, and for anyone kind of listening and who is thinking about taking a sort of less traditional path and is thinking about starting their own business, what would be your advice to them at this stage?

Oh gosh, I feel like if you would have asked me that question like 10 minutes ago, I would have not had this answer. But since we've been talking, it's kind of prompted this answer. But I'd say I definitely regret mucking about. Like not in a bad way I was mucking about, but I was like, no, this color scheme isn't right or I don't like this logo or whatever. Whatever the situation was, I wanted it to be perfect. And unfortunately in that position, if you've just, or you're just about to go into a self employed business and you're starting a business for the first time, I don't feel like you have the, the pleasure of that. So just start, choose whatever color because in a year's time the color will change. Choose whatever, make those choices, put the groundwork in, create the foundations and then you're up and running. I feel like I can actually reflectively say that I spent too much time worrying about the small things and that is totally like my personality. I do that and I've been, I've done that since I can remember. But just hit the ground running and it will all start to unfold how it needs to unfold. But you're just slowing yourself down by worrying about those small things because inevitably they are going to change. Like my, my logo and my brand name is different to what it was five years ago and I was so. I spent so much time on that first name and the colors and the, and the text and the font and the I don't even business cards which I don't even use now. Like I spent on that moo or whatever it's called. God knows how much I've got thousands of them left over at home. Don't even use business cards now. So I would say just, just do it. Go. I know it's scary, but just embrace the fear and just do it. Set the ground, hit the ground running and just go.

And that is the most valuable advice. And it's the advice that I see you give to your clients, I give to my clients, which is just fucking start.

Yeah.

Because I think the biggest thing exactly as you said, is we want everything to be so perfect. And I see this time and time again with clients when I say to them, right, you're launching your business, let's start posting on Instagram. Well, this, yeah, the excuses, the point in posting on Instagram or sharing a LinkedIn article or going live on Instagram, whatever it is, whatever it is, the piece of material that you're trying to create, to generate leads, to get known. It's not about actually the conversion. It's not about I need to get 100 followers or I need 50 people to sign up to my mailing list. That's not the point. It's the point of getting yourself out of your comfort zone, being messy, throwing things together. And I can say this from experience, I've worked at some of honestly the world's like biggest brands. And in the back, it is an absolute mess because on the front the facade is it's all perfect, everything's streamlined, we know what we're doing. And in the back, it's an absolute mess. I remember when I was, I think I was 17 or 18 and I got a job, a summer job, a very, very big luxury, well known retail business. And I'm sure you can probably guess which one it is by that. And I remember going into the back and everything was just chaotic. That's, that's the only word that I can think to describe it. It was chaotic, it was messy, it was pretty crazy. But it works for the business because that's how they've always worked. Things evolved and things change, but nothing's ever perfect. There is never a sort of process where everything is streamlined and oiled and perfect all the time. Because that's not how life works. Things change. You know, businesses evolve, things change. The, the external factors of, you know, the way people are spending money, the habits, what's important, what's on trend is constantly changing that if you waited to do everything perfectly but the time you got it perfect, that would, you would have missed the boat. That train that season has come and gone and went on to the next one. And you know, when I talk to people about newsletters or LinkedIn posts or social media or, you know, launching their first products, whatever it is, or applying for new jobs and interviewing, whatever the Situation is you just have to start and go and learn and evolve and grow. But you can't grow from something if you haven't tried it.

Yeah, I totally agree. And I feel like I can definitely look back and I reckon I was stagnant for the first. I moved slowly and I. And I don't regret, but I wonder if I had. Have just hit the ground running. But it was my fear and that's obviously changed in the last five years. But I wonder what could have been different had I not have been such a worse.

Yeah, and I think that's. It's so interesting, you know, you look at the likes of someone, let's say, for example, like Grace Beverly, for argument's sake, and it's interesting. I'm always so intrigued by her journey that it started where people were just asking her for like her meal recipes or her fitness plans or whatever it was, and she just kind of started without really thinking about it because actually the pressure wasn't on there to make money. The pressure was on there just to kind of share. And she said she made like £10,000 in a really short amount of time. It's absolutely incredible. But that's a prime example of someone who just. Just did it.

Just did it. Exactly.

And her business has completely evolved. I mean, she's an absolutely incredible entrepreneur. Her businesses are amazing. She's super, super inspiring, especially for as a young female business owner. And I think what's really interesting about that is if someone had said to her or anyone else, well, you need to go and start this, and the title needs to be perfect and the branding needs to be perfect, you need to have a website.

Nothing would have gone down.

Or would she have gone. Actually, that feels like it's too much. And is it because she just took the leap and threw something together and created it, that it then sort of snowballed into this incredible business that she had built. And I often do think about that for the people who just took the leap and started, if they hadn't, would they be in a 9 to 5 job or a career that they absolutely hated just because they thought that that was the only option?

Yeah. And I totally agree. And I feel like that that advice, if they're just starting, can apply to literally everything.

Everything in life. Absolutely. And you know, I see it especially a lot in the sort of fitness and, and wellness industry, you know, majority sort of with food and weight loss and that sort of stuff where people go, I wish I just started six months ago. But you didn't just start Today.

Yeah.

And there is that thing of, you know, I wish I just done this and I wish I'd just done that. And actually it's really important to, you know, the best time was to start a year ago. The second best time is yesterday. So if you're listening to this podcast and you've wanted to start something, do it. Please, both of us, just get up and do it. Send that first email, do that first post, whatever it is, just, just get up and do it. Because don't wait another six months or a year to do it.

There's no time like the present.

Absolutely no. Absolutely true. So in terms of obviously your business, you run a business day to day, obviously a very, very successful business. What are the biggest challenges, both I guess personally and then also business wise that you sort of face and how have you been able to overcome them?

I feel like, business wise, I feel like the biggest challenge is because it's a small business and I'm on my own. It's, it feels like some of the time I'm the marketer, I'm the finance person, I'm the social media person, I'm the editor, I'm all of these things. And I feel like sometimes I'm only my actual qualification job like 10% of the time. And I feel like when you're on your own and it's a small business and, and you've been going for a couple of years, that might be a challenge. It will feel like you've kind of lost sight of what your job even is because sometimes you're so busy having to do everything else and it's a lot of things like these big companies have all of these departments and resources and whatever. So I feel like that's quite a big challenge. But I think so for someone who is obsessed with organization, I think like time blocking and, and getting my headspace clear and having everything like written down and knowing what needs to be done and creating a little bit of structure can really help with that kind of stress and alleviate all of those little tasks that make me kind of feel that I don't have time to do my actual job.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's a really interesting one. Obviously you may have heard this of like there's working in your business and then working on your business. Yeah, obviously working in your business is you're actually executing on it, actually doing the coaching, you're doing the job and then working on your businesses. The strategic, the business strategy, the marketing, the finance, sales, all of it research, all of that. And and it is interesting because a lot of the time we really do spend that time working on our business and actually not in our area of niche which is, is the specific coaching or the specific product that we're offering. And it's interesting that you share that because I do think it is a shock for a lot of people who are going, well, I want to become a PT. Great, they become a PT and they actually, out of a 40 hour week, they're actually only PTing 15 of those hours. But they're still working 40 hours a week because actually, but if you don't.

Do that other, the other bit, then you won't be able to do. It's like the chicken and the egg.

Yes, absolutely. And it's really about being able to balance that. And, but I think at the beginning of your business you are doing both. You're working in on your business. It's chaotic, it's messy and you know, it's a really interesting conversation. I've had this with a lot of people where, you know, they're looking at starting a business. And because so many people out there have said you can work a four day, you four hour day or whatever it is that so many people have, are forgetting that at the beginning of a business when you're starting it, there is the hustle, there is the hard work, there is the long hours. And I think we're so anti, we're so anti hustle culture now that we've kind of gone the other way where people are going, well, I've applied for three jobs this week and I've, I've done two hours on my business and it still hasn't taken off. What would be your sort of advice and your suggestion for someone who is starting out? Do you think that they need to be hustling, working hard? Do you think that they can build a successful business with working two hours a day at the beginning? What's your sort of view on that and what would be your advice?

I think it's a tricky one. I think it, if you're determined to make something work, you'll do whatever it takes.

Yeah.

If you have so much self belief in yourself and the business that you're about to run and you're doing two hours and, and that's enough, and, and you, and it's making waves, then great. You've, you've cracked, you've cracked something. But I feel like you've, with everything in life you've got, you've got to work hard. It doesn't just, you don't just click your Dorothy Red heels together three times and. And it all falls together. I feel like we still do have to work hard. Nothing comes easy. Nothing worth having comes easy anyway. So if you want that to reap the rewards and have that success and build that business or start whatever we said people were going to start, you have to work hard. And that's working hard for what, the first couple of years, work your ass off and then you have 20 years of bliss and you can do whatever you want. You choose.

And I, and I, and I totally, totally agree with that. I believe that the world has become such a place, especially with the likes of Tick Tock and influences and seeing all of that world is again, we see lots of, you know, influences who we go, God, they've just come up in the ranks so quickly and we don't realize that they've actually been posting on YouTube where three people have been watching their videos for the last six, seven years now. They're becoming successful. And I, I do believe that we've unfortunately created a little bit of a culture where it, where we sort of go, well, don't burn out and don't hustle too much. And I totally agree with that. I'm absolutely anti burnout. I think it's the worst thing that you can do to your body mind physically, spiritually adjusts. Trying to come back from a burnout is challenging.

It's hard. Yeah.

And everything else goes on hold. However, I do believe that there's an in between. Between absolutely burning out and doing the bare minimum, but actually being able to build something. And exactly as you said, is having that passion and having that drive of actually I'm having impact and I'm creating something that feels really good and you're.

Doing something you enjoy, that's what will push you.

Yes. And that was the big thing is actually if it does still feel really difficult and uncomfortable, it's about taking a step back and going, is this uncomfortable because it's. I'm so invested in it and I really, really want this to work or is it really uncomfortable because it's so misaligned with me and I absolutely should not be doing this? And you know, I've seen it in the coaching industry. Pandemic hit. So many people were like, I want to become a coach. And they became a coach. They had all this free time in the world and they were able to see clients throughout the day. It fit in with their work life. There was absolutely no social life, no gym life. And as soon as the World opened up, opened up again. It became a challenge trying to balance it all. And I've seen, you know, there are hundreds and thousands of Instagram profiles that I've seen start as coaches during the pandemic that haven't been active for two years now. And you've seen people follow their dreams and then reality came back and they just completely let that go out the window. And it's really sad. As someone who is so passionate about what I do and absolutely loves running my own business, it's sad to see that a lot of these people couldn't keep up with it because they over. They over thought, well, if it's not perfect and I can't see five clients a day and normal work doesn't allow that. You know, just being able to take a step back and go, actually, I've got this mailing list, I've got this Instagram following. Let me post once a week. It has to be imperfect. Let me just throw stuff out. I've got advice, I've got the knowledge.

And I totally agree with you. But what I would say is that they started if it didn't work out, but they still did something and they started and it didn't work out.

Yeah, absolutely. And I guess the big question is asking anyone who is in that situation, who started something, did it work? Did it not work out? Because you realized, absolutely, this was not for me. I gave it a go. I got my qualification. I realized coaching wasn't for me, but I've learned some really great skills and I'm going on my way. Or is it the flip side, where I started it? I absolutely loved it, but I just didn't have the time to continue doing it because life got back in the way. And for those people who are on the sort of lasso that go, actually, I really, really miss it and I want to be able to do it. Think about how you can pick that up again. What is the one thing, as Claudia said, what's the kind of one imperfect thing that you can just do today to start reviving that and picking that up again and moving forward? If that is something that you want to have a look at, it's literally.

With any of these things that I always tell my clients, it's one small thing a day. If that's an extra liter of water, if that's an extra 500 steps, if that's doing a face mask or doing a workout with your kids outside on the trampoline, whatever it is, when you one small step every day, whatever it is, Will like that. The James clear 1% better a day. The atomic habits. Yeah, anything. It's the best, isn't it? Yeah, anything that will get you to that. Don't think too far ahead. It's literally 1%. Do one small thing every day, whatever, in whatever circumstance you're in and you'll get there.

I love that. And I think that's the biggest thing to have come out of this recording today is actually you don't need to have it all sorted out, you don't need to have it all fixed. It's just around taking that first step, that tiny first step, making 1% changes and really just being able to move the dial that tiny, tiny little bit rather than trying to make a whole big life change in one day.

Totally. And I think little me would be very happy with that. She'll take that well. However old I was, 23 year old Claudia at the start of her business will even like younger that would have been. Someone would have told me that that would have been so helpful.

Well, I hope whoever's listening to this today is the younger versions of us who can listen to that and be inspired by it.

So.

So Claudia, what would be. I know we've kind of spoken a lot about advice and we've spoken about what you would do, but for anyone who's got to the end of this podcast is sat there listening to this thinking, right, I want to make a change, whatever it is, whether it's career, whether it's fitness, whether it's, you know, starting their own business, what would be your one key piece of advice in a sentence that you would say to them? Someone sat in front of you right now, what would be the one thing you would say to them?

Oh, other than the fact, other than what we've already said about just starting, I think I would probably have to just say listen to yourself, okay? Listen to how you feel it does it sit right with you. Be in tune with your gut, your instinct, all of those things. And, and that will help you know yourself better than anyone else. So I would say to listen to yourself.

I love that. So paired with just go out and do it, start, listen to your gut, listen to yourself. I think that's a perfect recipe for anyone who's on the fence, who wants to have a bit of change of circumstance, that wants to take that next leap. I think all of that advice together builds together for a very, very good start for anyone listening to this.

Not too bad of a little recipe I think we've made.

Well, look, Claudia, thank you so much for being the guest on this week's podcast. I've absolutely loved learning about your journey. I think it's so inspirational what you've done. I really love your honesty and the fact that you've shared the challenges, not just everything sort of behind rose tinted glasses. So thank you so much. If, if any of the followers want to, you know, touch base with you or see what you're up to, where can they find you?

So Instagram is at coaching Underscore with underscore Claudia. Bit complicated, but that's all there was. Coaching with Claudia for Instagram purposes. That's the probably the best place.

Perfect. Well, look again, thank you so much, Claudia, for being such an incredible guest.

Thank you for having me. It's been good to chat. Great.

Thank you. Bye.

Thanks. Bye. Foreign.

Thank you for joining us on this week's episode. We really hope that you've gained valuable insights into what it takes to carve your own career path. Remember, whether you're an artist, an entrepreneur, or anything in between, there is always a way to pursue your dreams and create a fulfilling career for yourself. The key is to stay true to your passions, be persistent, and never give.

Up on your goals.

As as always, we want to thank you, our listeners, for joining us on this incredible journey.

We look forward to bringing you more.

Inspiring stories in the future. So stay tuned for our next episode. Until then, keep pushing the boundaries, chasing your dreams, and living your most unconventional life.

Thanks for listening.