Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Fearnley

Hi Jessica, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?

One of the defining things about me as a person is that I’ve always felt like ‘too much’. Growing up I was probably what you would now call a Highly Sensitive Child, and maybe unsurprisingly I’ve grown into a High Sensitive Adult! But I received a lot of messages in school and at home that I was too emotional, too easily affected by things going on around me, too imaginative, too creative, too ‘outside of the box’. If I really enjoyed a project I would write reams of pages even when that wasn’t required! And I was the same in my career – I often got asked to slow down or work less quickly. I was often bored to tears at work because I constantly felt like I had to make myself smaller. I was bright and ambitious and I wanted to run far and run fast. It wasn’t until I started my coaching company at age 31 that it all finally made sense – it was a real moment of ‘oh! THIS is why I’m like this!’. I finally found an outlet for my creativity and my ambition, and I could make the decision to move really fast with my business – or – equally I could slow things down to suit me. When I started my business my eldest son was 1, so the flexibility in those days was really valuable. I also had my second son around 3-4 years into the business, so again, it was ideal to be able to cut my schedule right back. One of the biggest reflections I would make now is that my too-muchness has made me ideally suited to being a coach. I am very empathetic, I am very opinionated. I love deep work with my clients and actually, I don’t know if I could do the work I do with my clients if I wasn’t those things. My upcoming book, called Too Much, is about how women can go from feeling like too much to feeling exactly the right amount, because ultimately it is about understanding WHERE we put ourselves. When we are in a place that isn’t enough for us, we feel like too much. But when we uncover what our ‘more’ looks like, we can start to shift to that place of feeling like exactly the right amount even if we take that journey one step at a time.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?

I suffered extreme burnout in 2010, which put an end to my corporate 9-5 career. This largely happened because I was trying to be who I thought I should be, rather than understanding who I actually am. And I burnt myself out in the process.

There have been many points on the journey over the last 10 years where I have questioned if I was crazy to be setting up as a coach. Getting established is a challenge. Getting your first clients is hard. Getting your second round of clients is actually much harder. Keeping a consistent pipeline over the years takes a lot of work.

The pandemic was a huge challenge, but it also forced me to prioritise and to show up meaningfully in my work.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?

Jessica Fearnley is a business coach who helps women build seven figure consulting firms. She specialises in the transition from six to seven figures in turnover, and is an advocate for earning more by working less.
Jessica has bachelors and masters degrees from Nottingham University, and a career background in project management, business planning and business development in both the public and private sector. In December 2019 she was named as one of the LinkedIn Top Voices for Entrepreneurship and Small Business, and is passionate about closing the gender pay gap for women in consulting.

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?

There is always an element of luck in business – being the right person at the right time for your clients. Just happening to show up on their radar when they are in the market for someone who does what you do. But I think that we make our own luck if we commit to growing our network of contacts, making strategic decisions about how and where to be visible, and doing the thing that most women hate to do – asking for referrals.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jessicafearnley.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sevenfigureconsultant/