It’s crazy to think that as Claire and I headed into the tail end of 2019 we had a vague idea of wanting to provide more tools and support for midlifers, which is how The Midlife Mentors podcast was born.
Fast forward through a pandemic that shut the world (and our main business) down for almost two years and that podcast is now in the top 1.5% globally, and we get messages from listeners around the world.
What’s also incredible is that the podcast marked the start of a pivot (that was massively accelerated by the pandemic) into building out and successfully delivering programmes that would allow midlifers to thrive in mind, body and soul.
At the start of 2020 we faced a bleak picture. We were almost 80% booked for our season of transformation retreats, and of course, not only were they postponed indefinitely, we had to refund all those bookings. It was tough.
Doubly tough when both of you work in and on the same business. There was no safety net of another job, we knew we had to rely on ourselves.
We also knew that we loved what we were doing with the podcast, with the research we were doing around it, with the way we were training and the results a very small handful of one to one clients were getting applying our training methodology, nutritional coaching, habit coaching and success mindset coaching.
So we backed ourselves. With solid backgrounds in psychology, stress management, coaching and NLP supplementing the personal training and nutrition we’re mostly been using, we knew we could start applying tools that would make a difference to people’s lives.
Rather than saving, we invested, we trained in new qualifications around hormones and menopause, we got coaches where we needed support, knowledge or new skills, we invested in tech to build our app… we were bold.
Today we have clients around the world who’ve achieved amazing results, not just physically, but have a transformed relationship with food, and with their mindset. We run workshops for blue chip corporates, are regularly quoted in the press, have a book to our name (with another coming), we’ve won a slew of awards (8 in total since 2019!) and managed to split our time between London and Marbella.
Even with a dog, Brexit and Covid!
Now the world is opening up our retreat business is booming, we’re helping others realise their dreams of retreats, and our coaching and corporate business is flying.
The great thing is, we feel like we’re only just getting started.
If I could share one thing it’s this: be bold.
It would have been so easy to withdraw from the world, count every penny, try and eke it through. Being bold isn’t easy, but when you step forward with confidence the world has a knack of coming through to support you.
Looking back over this relatively short space of time I’m proud, and grateful. Not everything went well, there were some poor decisions, but we learn from our mistakes. Turns out that old saying really is true, “nothing ventured, nothing gained”.
What would you love to create in your life? Today’s the day to take that first step.