Guiding Stressed Out Women - Catalyst Health Coaching

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in Health Coaching but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Renee Ward, owner of Catalyst Health Coaching, located in Raleigh, NC, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

As the founder of Catalyst Health Coaching, my biggest passion is helping exhausted midlife women get their energy and self-confidence back through my MEND Method™, a personalized blueprint for mindset, exercise, nutrition, and daily habits after 50.

I've been so successful in empowering others to use small daily habits to create lasting change that I now also share my simple Habits That STICK™ process with a wide range of audiences, including corporations, civic groups, and community organizations.

Tell us about yourself

In the fall of 2016, I was starting year 15 of running my own successful engineering consulting firm and was about to turn 50. I was blindsided by a breast cancer diagnosis just days after my birthday. I had no symptoms or family history and was in the best physical shape of my life. The next 18 months were a blur of appointments, scans, surgeries, radiation, and medications - while working full-time and caring for my family.

Because I had been fairly health conscious before my diagnosis, I did extremely well physically during my cancer treatment. Women started reaching out to me weekly regarding their own diagnosis, or to get advice for someone close to them. That inspired me to get my health coach certification and gain more knowledge to help others dealing with breast cancer.

As I moved away from active treatment and into my status as a survivor, I was completely unprepared for the mental and emotional trauma cancer can cause and how that can impact every area of life. Things continued to pile on - medically induced menopause, financial debt, the end of my 25-year marriage, and becoming an empty nester, to name a few - until I suffered my first stress-induced panic attack and had a heart attack scare. Something had to change.
That's when I really started caring for my mental and emotional health as much as I had the physical part. Spending more time in nature, giving attention to quality sleep, starting a daily gratitude practice, getting comfortable with stillness and meditation, and ending toxic relationships were some of the things I focused on. And even if they had not experienced cancer, I found that most midlife women shared some of my struggles - but were reluctant to take the time needed to care for themselves. After to listening to one heartbreaking story after another from the women in my Catalyst community, I was inspired to create my MEND Method™ to consistently help more women.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

My biggest accomplishment by far is empowering women to live more intentionally and truly change their own lives for the better. Not only does it make them happier, healthier, and more confident as individuals - it impacts their families, their co-workers, and their communities as well. Every time I get a text or an email from a past client sharing another success, it makes my heart sing.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

One of my favorite things about my health coaching business is creating practical content that people can use, like blogs, recipe guides, 5-day challenges, cheat sheets, or workshops. But one of the hardest things is consistently getting those things in front of the people that need it. Platforms, ads, and algorithms change constantly. You can exhaust yourself and still feel like it's crickets out there sometimes. The other challenge for me is having to wear "all the hats" (like accounting and success metrics - uugghhh), rather than just doing all the parts I enjoy.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

Don't let impostor syndrome hold you back. You don't have to know everything in order to teach somebody else something valuable. I wasted a year getting more training (that I've yet to use) because I was afraid somebody would ask me a health question I couldn't answer.
Learn from people a few steps ahead of you. Find inspiring people in the type of business you want to start or grow. Listen to them on podcasts, find them on social media, read their book, or do a deep dive into their website. Most of them are happy to share free resources and lessons learned to save you from making the same mistakes they did starting out.
Focus, but don't fixate. When starting out, it is important to focus on a business niche or a target market client. You can't be everything to everybody. But remember, you don't have to be fixated on that forever. Your business will change and evolve as you grow, and say yes to the right opportunities. I've gone from focusing on women dealing with breast cancer to helping stressed-out and exhausted midlife women, which has been a natural progression.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://thecatalysthealthcoach.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CatalystHealthCoach
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catalysthealthcoach/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HealthCoachWard
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reneedward/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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