Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Megan Blacksmith, Co-Founder of Zesty Ginger, located in Virginia Beach, VA, USA.

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

Dr. Alex Golden (M.D.) and me, (Health Coach, Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner) are the co-founders of Zesty Ginger, a company founded on the principles of compassionate transformation. We help coaches, practitioners, and entrepreneurs fast-track their client results through a combination of functional medicine, mindset, and subconscious reprogramming.

Tell us about yourself

With over ten years of personal health struggles that were overlooked by conventional medicine, such as chronic pain and endometriosis for our postpartum health crash and anxiety, they vow to make medicine and health easier to navigate. We believe that when we consider health from the perspective of the mind, body, heart, and soul, we allow ourselves to resolve our fragmentation.

Fragmentation is the result of living in a world that breaks us down into categories and addresses problems by organ systems. Instead, healing comes from wholeness.
Teaching people and practitioners the tools to guide people back to their wholeness motivates us every day, as we commonly see drastic shifts in health and business that otherwise may have been considered impossible.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Our biggest accomplishment is our 7-Step Transformation Framework, which has cracked the code to resolve irritating health plateaus and backsliding for people who do "all the things." We have gotten such amazing client results that we are now teaching that framework to coaches and practitioners. Hosting multiple in-person practitioner pieces of training a year is a huge accomplishment, as our original 10-year plan to have a certification was accomplished in a year by using our own steps!

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

One of the hardest things about being a business owner is going against all of the most common advice. When "they," say that you must post daily, be in 10 different locations, or that the only format for functional medicine is 1-on-1, we were able to question this advice at each point in the growth of our business. Is this really necessary? Is it actually best for us, our unique style, and our human designs?

Is this suggestion made out of fear and lack, or does it feel expansive? How do we want to do it? By questioning and using our seven steps to really tap into our own intuition, we found a unique way to operate that worked for us, honored our female cycle, and also met our needs.

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

  1. Don't just follow all of the most common advice. Learn your style and yourself and how to trust your intuition so that you can constantly be testing what works for you, getting feedback, and course-correcting as needed. Just because something has always been done a certain way does not imply that it is the best way.
  2. Uncover your hidden beliefs and smoke out any secondary gain. Ask yourself what is stopping you from doing the small tasks that will move the needle the most. We frequently believe that we do not have enough time or knowledge when in reality, we are postponing the tasks that will have the greatest impact because they require us to be vulnerable and put ourselves out there. Find these deep-rooted beliefs and shift them. Also, watch for secondary gain, as often we stick to the things that we know well, even if they are not good for our business growth or our health. When we get more out of not doing something, this is considered a secondary gain. This could be like how I got more attention when I was sick or how procrastinating on the article allowed me not to be seen.
  3. Get into the parasympathetic state (think rest and digest or the opposite of fight or flight) as much as possible. When our body feels safe in its environment, our brain chemistry and hormones operate optimally, which leads to clear thinking, energy, and creativity. I have found that I can get a project done in 1/10 the time by taking ten extra minutes to calm my body and my nervous system before starting something such as deep breathing, tapping, or singing.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.zestyginger.com/  
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TeamZestyGinger
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zesty_ginger/

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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