BWOTW: How some bright lippy gave this fertility coach permission to stand up

Featured

9 Feb

This week’s Bizwoman of the Week is Maja, an infertility coach and mentor from Invercargill.

Maja shared some of her journey and goals as a woman in business and how spaces like She Owns It has supported her personal and professional growth, in our community.

Introducing Maja

So, what does lippy have to do with fertility or business you might ask. In short - nothing! BUT lippy is what gave me confidence when I needed it most!

What do I do?

Six years ago, I decided to retrain as a health coach after having worked as midwife for a number of years. While I had no idea what my path would look like moving forward, one thing was clear: To improve the wellbeing of mothers-to-be and their babies, and reduce pregnancy related complications, my 'fix it as we go approach' (standard maternity care approach) wouldn't be enough. Health coaching allowed me to look beyond the 'fix it' and explore preventative, lifestyle medicine. The rest is history.

Today I have left my midwifery role behind and focus on fertility coaching, health education, and mentoring. As a fertility coach I support women and couples wanting to conceive. Together we go beyond 'google told me to do this' and 'my doctor said to keep trying' - there is no one-size-fits-all approach when working with me. Fertility coaching is about building your confidence, improving your fertility using a personalised lifestyle approach, and bringing in calm and ease to your rollercoaster journey.

As a health educator I visit schools and facilitate workshops with pre-teens and their parents on puberty. While this can be a daunting topic for parents (and sometimes kids), these workshops are super fun, and everyone walks out having learnt something new as well as having increased their confidence in talking about the changes our bodies go through. I also teach antenatal classes, supporting parents-to-be in understanding their choices and building their confidence for their journey ahead.

Lastly, I mentor new coaches. When I started out as a self-employed coach, I found that I had all the skills to be supporting clients but lacked serious confidence and knowledge in regard to building a sustainable business. While everyone was telling me to focus on 'target market research', 'pricing your services', and 'inviting people to a discovery call', I found that the ease came into my business when I learnt how to manage my finances, keep my records, set up booking and email automations, accept payment from clients, and all the other practical things that go into running a business day-to-day. Mentoring new coaches allows me to support others to be building their business with more ease from the get-go, without spending hours trying to figure out how to actually do it all as a one-woman-band.

Five things about me as a woman in biz you should know:

There is a greater purpose to my business: My children! Having experienced personal health struggles since my teenage years, I vowed to make a difference for my own children and their friends. Working with people during their fertility journey increases not only their health but also the health of their children. Mentoring new coaches, especially health coaches, ensures there are more of us working collectively on improving health outcomes. Health education allows me to pass on the knowledge people need to take back control of their wellbeing. My work is about preventing a further decline in health outcomes and ensuring that future generations live well.

Imposter syndrome is real! I have come to understand that imposter syndrome is part of being a business owner, sometimes more and sometimes less. For me, imposter syndrome mainly shows up when my believe system is challenged or I am venturing into something I have never done before or seen anyone do before. What helps is talking it through with my husband or a friend, to remind me of what matters most and that I am capable of achieving what I set out to do.
I love the freedom owning a business gives me but am continuing to learn to love the responsibilities that come with it too. Unless I show up for my business, things will not move forward or happen.
Spending time with my family and dog, exploring new sites and activities, is my absolute happy place. Together we are creating memories to cherish forever. This also means that I value my boundaries and keep work / business time separate to my personal time as much as possible.
While I promote wellbeing and believe that wellbeing is crucial to running a successful business, I believe that there is no 'one-size-fits-all' answer to what this looks like for each individual. I don't buy into the latest fitness trends or nutrition hacks. For me, wellbeing starts with joy, making movement and nutrition work for you, and getting a decent amount of sleep each night.

Three wins I am proud of:

While business (and life) most certainly has its ups and downs, I always try to focus on my wins - or turning a negative situation in something to learn from and ultimately a win. So, here are three wins I am proud of that I want to celebrate with you today:

This morning I shared my very personal story with a group of amazing women in business. As I was getting ready to tell my story and how my story relates to the work that I am doing I realised that through following my passion I finally came to accept who I am as a person (flaws and all). Ultimately, being brave, moving away from solely clinical work as a midwife, and exploring other ways to support women on their journeys allowed me to free myself from a lot damaging believes. For me, this is a massive win and also something I see all my clients experience for themselves as we work together.
In 2021 I won the PREKURE Community Spirit Award. And then went on to be a finalist for the HCANZA (Health Coaches Australia and New Zealand Association) Emerging Health Coach of the Year Award in 2022 and a finalist for the HCANZA Health Coach Advocacy Award in 2024. While winning awards and being nominated for my achievement as a coach most certainly isn't everything, I feel grateful for the recognition of my work and am proud of my achievements.
Being in business can be tough, I have seen many businesses fall over after the first two years or needing to pivot. This year will mark six years in business, supporting women and couples to conceive, training and mentoring new health coaches. While I have definitely had my moments (and some very stern words from my amazing accountant), my business continues to grow and support those in need of my services.

3 tough lessons I have learnt:

This is the moment I tell you the story about my lippy...

June 2021: It had been a whole year after finishing my health coach training and a few months after deciding to quit midwifery practice for good to go all in on my business. I posted regularly, had the odd conversation, and nothing! How could someone with great education, a good coaching offer, and passion to create change fail this badly? I was doubting myself, doubting that I could do it, and behind the scenes becoming rather grumpy at those around me. I decided that something needed to change and started working with a mentor. The question she asked me that changed everything: "Who are you as successful business owner?" "Don't wait to become her, be her now!"

That was the very moment I decided that the successful businesswoman I wanted to be would get up every morning, full of energy, excited to step into the day, and apply her makeup - especially red lippy for the world to notice her. For me makeup had nothing to do with covering up flaws or blending into society but rather elevate my self-worth and stop hiding. I knew the moment I would apply that red lippy, people would notice me and that I would have to step up. For me applying lippy became synonymous to ramping up my confidence tenfold, that moment I became unstoppable! (I also became far less moody!)

The 'tough lesson' I learnt with this was that mindset is everything and far more important than the skillset, passion, and determination I had. While I don't wear lipstick daily anymore, I will still apply it on the days I feel sluggish or enter new situations that make me feel nervous. Since then, I may also have increased my lippy collection by a fair few different shades to reflect my different moods.

Tough lesson #2: Boundaries! When I started out in business I wanted to please everyone. Late night coaching sessions? Sure! Emails and messages in the weekend? No problem at all! I realised pretty quickly that trying to please everyone meant letting my family and myself down. Hello burnout and yet more grumpy behaviour... Now I am clear around my availability and providing my services in a way that feels good. I will still offer the odd evening session and am available for my clients to contact me whenever it suits them, but I am no longer available to bend over backwards for everyone. Creating those boundaries has been a gamechanger for my wellbeing and providing the freedom to spend quality time with my family.

Tough lesson #3: Noone is coming to save you! This was a hard one to swallow, so hear me out! In a world where the healthcare system is stretched, wait-times are long, and funding is short we have to advocate for ourselves to get what we want. There are some incredible healthcare workers around and I am truly grateful for their work, but I also know that they work within limitations that sometimes mean 'patients being fobbed off' or 'follow-ups being missed'. When things weren't great for me health-wise it took a lot of work and self-advocacy to be seen, heard, understood, and supported in a way that felt good. I knew that no one was coming to save me unless I was ready to save myself and do everything in my power to be supporting the work my healthcare team was providing. I learnt that self-advocacy is huge and it is a skill all my clients walk away with when we work together.

Let me share an offer with you:

I have loved sharing more about me, my business, my why, and the work that I do with you this week. I want to wrap this week up by introducing two of my offers and inviting you to download my freebies and book a call with me.

Offer 1: For the woman who is wanting to conceive and feeling stuck and lost doing it all while nothing seems to be working. Fertility coaching is about reconnecting you to yourself, finding what will actually work for your unique self, and giving you the confidence and ease you dreamt of having while trying to conceive. If this sounds like you, head to my website to download my 'Boost Your Fertility Guide' and book a connection call with me: https://www.maiahealthcoaching.com/fertility-services/

Offer 2: Are you a coach just starting out? You have got the qualifactions and passion to make a difference but getting your business off the ground seems more complicated than you envisioned? I have got you! Download my 'Coaching Business Checklist' which has all the practical steps you need to take to get your business started. Then book a call with me and together let's turn your passion into practice: https://www.maiahealthcoaching.com/for-coaches/retired.