Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Emily Spicer, Owner of Emily Spicer Coaching, located in Bismarck, ND, USA.

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

My business is Emily Spicer Coaching, and I help busy men and women achieve permanent weight loss in an enjoyable way. No gimmicks, detoxes, or extremes. Let Weight Loss be the Side Effect!

Tell us about yourself

Emily Spicer Coaching was born from my personal journey. My story began in first grade when I walked out of school one day crying to my mother that I was fat. Welcome to the beginning of my unhealthy obsessions with my appearance, food, dieting, and poorly executed exercise habits that left me feeling more and more frustrated, overwhelmed, and hopeless.

I have been overweight.
I have been underweight.
I have been addicted to exercise.

I ate “healthy” during the week and had my “cheat” days on the weekend.
These so-called cheat days would often turn into all-out binges on the foods I restricted myself from eating during the week. I had my fat pants ready to go every Monday morning because my weekends would always leave me bloated and uncomfortable. I treated food as my reward and exercise as my punishment. I avoided going out to eat with my family and friends because I wasn’t in control of how my food was being prepared.

I would make excuses not to go out with my friends when my clothes didn’t fit, or I didn’t like how I looked in my clothes. I didn’t own a pair of jeans until I went to middle school because I felt too restricted in them and only wore them to try to fit in. I labeled foods as “good” and “bad” and ate “perfect” in front of others, only to find myself binging in private. I even lost my hair due to poor nutrition choices, and to this day, my hair is still not as thick as it used to be.

I could keep going, but I think you get the point. Even though our stories are all going to be different, I understand. Because of my struggle, I know that there is no such thing as perfect. We all make mistakes along the road toward our health and happiness. I'm not perfect now, and I will never be perfect. I know how to balance myself and create a lifestyle where I can have a little bit of ice cream with my carrots. That is why I am so passionate about helping those who are ready to make changes in their lives.

In college, I began studying nutrition, exercise, stress management, and public health and learned that the key to sustainable weight loss is finding balance—the balance between health, fitness, and lifestyle. Throughout my journey, I kept hearing the terms "Flexible Dieting" and "Macros" getting tossed around. After some digging, I started to discover more and more about macronutrients and their role in the body. I quickly began to learn that body composition came down to macronutrients and calories more than anything; what foods those "macros" came from was not as important. I decided to try this flexible dieting thing out and, surprisingly, found it to be one of the most powerful health benefits of my life!

Flexible dieting helped me to find a balance with my food that allowed for a much healthier and more sustainable approach. Far beyond that, I found a new appreciation for my body and self-acceptance. My journey changed… it became less about weight loss and more about learning who I was and what my body truly needed. I found a place of self-love, and because of this journey, I have never felt more comfortable in my own skin. And that, my friends, is the goal!

My vision is to provide you with a place of support and connection to reach your goals and get you to love yourself. I believe in lifting each other up. After all, who understands someone's journey better than someone who has been down that road themselves? This isn’t something you have to do alone – let’s go through the ups and downs, insides and outsides together.

My goal is to assist you in developing skills and tools for building a strong and healthy mind by using what I've learned about food psychology and emotional eating, along with my personal experience, to help you get what you've always wanted: A sustainable and enjoyable way to attain lifelong weight-loss success.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

My biggest accomplishment since becoming a coach over 20 years ago is the number of lives I have transformed by helping people become their most alive selves.

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

Finding a work-life balance is one of the hardest aspects of being a business owner. This can be very challenging and is, frankly, one of the hardest things about being an entrepreneur. I have to apply the tools and techniques that I teach my clients to my own life. I absolutely love the work that I do, and I am blessed to be in the position I am in; however, I work more than someone with a typical 9-5 career.

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

  1. Make sure you are passionate about what you are doing because it will be a lot of work and time, and if you do not truly have a passion for what you are doing, the appeal will wear off quickly, and burnout may occur.
  2. Create a business that solves a problem. The problem you solve doesn’t need to be complicated. It can be simple, and by knowing what problem you’re solving, you can use that in your marketing to help people understand how you can help them best.
  3. Just do it even if it isn't perfect. Get out of your head, stop overthinking, stop questioning whether you’re making the right call, and just do it. The goal isn’t to win the award of perfection. The goal is to build a business that helps people solve a problem. And the sooner you can do that, the sooner you can make people’s lives better.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.emilyspicercoaching.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emilyspicer.coach/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifestyle_by_emilyspicer_/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/spicercoaching
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilyspicer/

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.

Turn your craft into recurring revenue with Subkit. Start your subscription offering in minutes and supercharge it with growth levers. Get early access here.